And Time Again
by sf
Summary: AU Fic. 1350 years later, the Sanzo-ikkou are reincarnated to put an end to events started more than a millenia past. 17 chapters later, they get a move on. (WIP)
1. Ch 1 : Clouds in a Coffee Cup

Project Title : And Time Again.  
Begun : 30th March 2002  
By sf 

Disclaimer : I don't own Saiyuki. I'm just the 32767th in line for it.

Summary :   
AU Fic. 1350 years later, the Sanzo-ikkou are reincarnated once again.

Foreword / Warnings :

!!**AU**!! Alternate Universe!! 

Having died and been reborn, the characters are necessarily different. They've retained their names (for simplicity's sake), but their personalities aren't exactly what they were. I've toned down some of the major hang-ups caused by traumatic experiences, and the net result is probably a cross between the Gaiden and Gensomaden characters. In two words : occasional OOC. I've tried to minimize this, but some things have changed. Age differences, for one, have been reduced - Sanzo, Hakkai and Gojyo are year mates (21), and Goku is a few years younger (18). 

This is a more serious version of the Gakkou fic that I co-wrote with toes-chan, but stemmed from an *entirely* different source of inspiration and probably bears no semblence whatsoever to that earlier fic. At this point in time, I have a general idea of what's going to happen in the immediate future, but the ultimate destiny and conclusion of the fic is hidden from me. Which is good, because I can discover the story as I go along, and all suggestions are not just welcomed - they'll probably be written in if I can tie them in. Also, this is the first time *gasp* that I'm trying _anything _like this, so ... proceed at your own risk! ^^ Enjoy, and R/R!

Rating : PG 

No intentional yaoi or shounen-ai. Rough language, minimal or no violence. 

... the rating of the anime series is PG! So.. I can't possible do any worse, right? ^^

****

AND TIME AGAIN

Chapter 1 : Clouds in a Coffee Cup

There was a field, and there was a road through that field.

And on that road was a jeep.

It was racing westwards, always westwards, always chasing the setting sun.

__

Why a jeep? he wondered. It was _always_ a jeep. The scenary changed, the time changed, everything changed, but a jeep was always there - _the_ jeep was always there, heading westwards.

__

Why westwards? he wondered.

Then the dream was fading away, leaving behind only a vague sense of deja vu and a wistful sadness... the kind that emerges when you touch upon a lost but beloved memory.

He blinked, and the field disappeared entirely, and there was just darkness.

He sighed and rolled over, squinting to make out the numbers on the bedside clock. 6:15am. Still wayyyy too early to be up, even if he did have classes at 8:30am. But it was always this way with the jeep dreams... he'd wake up early - or in the middle of the night - with that vague, nagging discomfort. And take _forever_ to get back to sleep. Counting sheep didn't help. Counting jeeps didn't help. It was _fine_, during examination season, if he ever needed insomnia to give him the extra time to study, but otherwise, it was just a royal pain in the ass.

Damn jeep, damn dream. It wasn't as if it was a decent nightmare or anything. He didn't have a phobia of jeeps. Nor was the jeep trying to _eat_ him or something like that. If anything, he should have a phobia of buses, ever since his parents--

--_shit_. Too late, he squeezed his eyes shut, trying to block out the memories. Scenes came rushing back, all too readily -- _a bus crashing straight into their car, the blood flying everywhere, glass shattering and metal twisting with a shriek to match his own... _

He'd been in shock when they extricated him from the wreckage and rushed him to hospital. Who wouldn't be, if you'd just watched your parents crushed to death in horrifying real time...?

"Shit," he swore softly. The worst part about that dream was that it led him down the darker recesses of memory lane, into places where he didn't want to go. It was 6:18 in the morning and he already felt that he needed a drink. A strong one. Enough to chase the memories from his head and let him get some rest without having to worry about green four-wheelers. 

Wistful thinking. There was that mathematics module test, first thing in the morning, and he needed his wits about him. 

But coffee, on the other hand... now _that_ could be arranged.

10 minutes later, he was in the kitchen, dumping 3 scoopfuls of ground coffee into one cup of water. And a few grains of sugar as an afterthought. Coffee, after all, should be made strong, or there is no point to it.

__

And strong coffee does not get stolen. Not twice, at least. A little smirk twitched at the corners of his mouth at the thought. Recalled how a particularly obnoxious housemate, back in the bad old days when he lived on campus, had swiped his coffee. One mouthful of that concentrated... no, _saturated_ coffee, black, without sugar, had sent the guy through the roof. It had taken him the better part of ten minutes to wash the taste out of his mouth, and he'd been hopping around on a caffeine high for the better part of the hour. Not to mention that most of that energy was spent rushing to the nearest toilet. Coffee, after all, is a diuretic. 

That memory always made his morning.

He stared out of the window as the water drained through the filter. Better the window than the other way, through the kitchen door and into the shadows of this oh so large and _empty_ house. It was always depressing when it was dark, because light meant people, and people...

Well, people in general were mostly just an annoyance. Even on a good day. But people in specific... 

__

Like parents...

...big empty houses felt subtly wrong when just inhabited by one person, even someone as anti-social as him. Strange paradox - needing solitude and company at the same time. But that was him all round - a paradox. He had a massive fortune and nothing to spend it on. A huge house and no one to share it with. Not that he _wanted_ other people buzzing around and annoying the hell out of him when he was trying to work. Solitude was good. Yet sometimes, it wasn't. Confused the hell out of him, it did.

__

Bloody hell... can't keep off brooding, even for a moment. Start when I wake up and keep at it all the way until I drop off to sleep. Give it a break, man. He shook his head in annoyance at himself and concentrated on breakfast. Which he couldn't taste this early in the day, since his tastebuds, having a lot more sense, were still in bed.

Little wisps of steam rose from the coffee cup, and formed vapor patterns against the window. Outside, the sun began its long trek across the sky.

***

__

a = 1.219 (To 3 d.p.)

He scanned through his working again, then submitted his paper and walked out of the room. 

__

What a waste of time._ Something as mechanical and dead simple as that shouldn't be .. allowed._

But then again...

__

I'm surrounded by idiots.

He caught the strains of conversation as he strode towards the library, looking for a quiet place to kill time until the next class. 

__

"Bloody smartass."

"Think you can top what he gets in this test?"

"What the hell? I can dream on. Mr-I'm-too-perfect-for-you-Sanzo doesn't make mistakes."

He paused, half-tempted to march over and punch the bastard... but it wouldn't help. If he did that, he would have to take out half of the faculty as well. 

__

Damn... can't a guy be smart and not have everyone hating him for it?

Yes, his brain replied_, If he isn't both smart *and* well-off_.

That was the problem. He would always be The Sanzo, owner of huge investments and amounts of property, up to his eyeballs in money... and not a damned clue what to do with it. 

__

And I'd trade all that for my loved ones back. Any day of the week.

He was so deep in thought that he didn't see the flash of brown until it collided straight into him.

"Waiii~~~~~!!!" 

"Gngh!"

Both of them went flying backwards (which shows that the theoretical application of the theory of conservation of momentum doesn't always work, especially in practical situations...). His file somehow came open in mid flight and all the papers spewed out, as he slipped on a patch of slippery floor and slammed into the ground. 

"ITAIIIIII~~~!!" the afore-mentioned flash of brown groaned from somewhere in front of him.

"Fuck," he muttered.

"I'm sorry," the figure in front of him apologized hastily, collecting his scattered papers. Young guy in a dark red T-shirt and jeans, about 18-ish, with a shock of gravity-defying brown hair. He glanced up, and their eyes met...

...and for a moment, just a moment, he felt a massive surge of recognition.

__

Golden eyes, those golden eyes...

Then the feeling vanished.

__

No, I swear I haven't seen him before. I swear I've never seen him before...

The youth had paused, a puzzled frown on his face. Then he broke into a wide grin. "Hi," he said, handing him the fallen papers. "I'm Goku."

He stared, jolted by the icy chill of '_know that name, remember that voice_...' but knowing equally well that they'd never met before. Never. With a capital N. 

The silence stretched, and Goku's smile faltered a little. "I'm really sorry about bumping into you like that."

"It's.. it's okay," he managed, taking the proffered handful of papers, stamping down on that alien sense of familiarity and shoving it into the corner of his mind. _Maybe he just looks like someone I know. Maybe he looks like someone I've seen before. Maybe I've seen him before. Get off it.. things like this happen all the time._

Right.

The grin broke out again, full force. "Say, what's your name?"

"San-- Genjo."

"Sangenjo? That sounds odd."

"That's because it's Genjo," he growled, resisting the urge to add "idiot" at the end of that sentence. He shoved the papers back into the file and stood. "Well, I'll be on my way." He started to turn away.

"Hey, wait."

"Yes?" he turned back. And fended off that naggy feeling of discomfort that was nibbling at the back of his mind. _It's just like that jeep dream, isn't it?_

"You forgot this one." Goku held out one last sheet. And glanced at it. "Hey, _coooool_, what's this about?"

"Homework," he said, and reached for the paper.

"But we don't cover superconductors and solid-state physics at undergrad level," Goku chirped.

__

Is that guy eternally happy or something? "No."

"Then this can't be homework!" Goku said with conviction, flourishing the paper. 

"Please. Give it back." His temper was fraying rapidly.

"What's it for? What's it for?"

"Just give it back, will you?" he snapped, aggravated.

"Aw... all right." Goku stopped waving the paper long enough for him to make an attempt at it.

And he nearly received paper cuts as it was whisked out of his fingers again. "Sayyy... you must be really good at Physics, right? Could you help me? Pleeeeease?" 

"I'm busy," he growled, and made another grab at the paper. And missed. _Bloody ape._

Wait.. where did that come from? He's not an ape, nevermind how he acts..

"Then I won't give this back. After all, it's not homework, so you don't need it, right?" Goku replied, a wicked sparkle in his eyes.

__

DamnIT!

"Give. It. Back."

"If you help me with this problem."

__

Why the hell is he so persistent? He was oh so tempted to slam the guy against the wall, wrench the paper out of his hand, and be on his way. Bloody waste of time..

__

But why not help him? another side of his brain said crazily. _After all, it's just one problem, and you have 2 hours to kill..._

He snatched at the paper and missed again. Goku danced out of range. "Hey, pleeeassse... I need to hand in this assignment _today_, and I really can't do it."

__

Could always tell him that I have a class now. He'd give it back. Or I'd just flatten him. He's half my height, after all.

"Oh, very well," he said, his mouth forming the words before his brain registered them. And snapped his mouth shut. _What the .. did I.. oh shitttt, I did._

Goku was grinning. "Thanks a bunch. I knew you'd agree."

He found himself wondering why he'd agreed to do this all over again as they went over Goku's assignments in the canteen. It wasn't that the kid was stupid, but his concentration... the way it wandered made him want to smack his forehead in frustration. And whack Goku's, just for good measure. _Can't keep his mind on the problem for more than 3 lines. No wonder he can't figure out anything that requires patience._ _But he's bright. He's.. very bright. Catches on really fast.._

"Gotcha," Goku said, scribbling madly. "I add this to this, minus the component of weight and ta-da.. that's the answer. Right? Right?" he looked up hopefully.

"Correct." _Sharp. That's the word._

"Yay! Let's eat!" Goku cheered, and, grabbing his sandwich, began to munch in earnest. 

__

That's what.. his third? Fourth? At 10 in the morning?

"Aren't you hungry?" Goku asked around a mouthful.

"No, not really. Any more questions?"

"Yep! This one!" Goku shoved another piece of paper across the table.

__

This is starting to get out of hand. _One question becomes two, two becomes three, and three branches off into four..._

He took another mouthful of coffee as he reviewed the question. A little voice tapped him on the shoulder. _Work to do. Lots of work to do._

But it can wait, can't it? another voice, the same one, he suspected, that had usurped his vocal chords and agreed to this, countered. The first voice sighed quietly and conceded defeat.

Because, despite, himself, he was actually.. well.. it was the first time in a _very_ long time that he'd done lunch (if he could call this lunch) with anyone. Or breakfast. Or dinner. Or _any_ meal, for that matter. Books did not make good conversationalists. Neither did coffee.

"You forgot to account for air resistence," he pointed out.

"I knew I'd forgotten something!"

There was something refreshing about the kid. His general chirpiness.. which, in someone else, might be plain annoying... suited him to the T. 

__

And there's something else, isn't there?

"You _sure_ you're not hungry? Want a sandwich?" Goku indicated the pile that he'd brought. There had to be a dozen there, discounting the ones that he'd already eaten.

"Quite sure." His eyes flicked over the equations, but his mind wasn't really on them.

It was the way that Goku treated him. Like an equal. None of that.. _Hey Sanzo, let's be friends so that I can sponge off you_, or .. the words of the morning came back to him ... "_Mr-Too-Perfect-For-You-Sanzo"..._ If he hadn't had a meal with anyone in a long time, it'd been even longer since someone had treated him like this. Like... a friend.

__

Great. The next I know, we'll be exchanging telephone numbers and email addresses.

"Hey.."

He looked up. "Yes?"

"Could I have your number?"

~TBC~

Mmm hmmm hmmm... chapter 1 done! Reviews would be nice.. ^_~.

Sorry toes, I just *had* to put in the comment about gravity-defying brown hair... *grins*.

Sanzo : Say... do you believe in karma?  
Sf : Karma.. as in?  
Sanzo : As in, authors who write bad fan-fic have it coming to them.  
Sf : Eh... nope. Don't believe in karma. Never did. *innocent grin*  
Sanzo : I thought not.

Aii.. I'm sorry about the angst, but I wanted a few similarities with the Gensomaden series, and angsty pasts is one of them. However, since I *don't* write angst as a rule (unless I'm really depressed, in which case I don't write at all), and I don't want this to turn into an angst fic, I'll be keeping it to a minimum. Promise! ^^

I confess to a *lot* of nail biting regarding this fic. Is it good? Bad? Ugly? Should I just scrap the whole thing and throw it in the bin and go back to working on Borderline? 

Sf's muse : *wails* But this fic is so *nice* to write!  
Sf : ;_; I know...

Please help a worried author and R/R..


	2. Ch 2 : Of Tuna Sandwiches and Things

sf : I understand that there was some weirdness in the last chapter, and some abruptness. All will be made clear in due time. *grins* And.. if anything looks out of place in *this* chapter, it's because my shower head fell off and left a bump on my cranium yesterday.  
Muse : Ahahaha. Ahem. *coughs discretely*  
sf : I will attempt to do multiple PoVs. *glares at fic* Hurry up and mutate so that changes occur!   
Muse : I think that the mould culture in your coffee cup is mutating more quickly than this fic...  
Sf : And... I'm sorry about the delay. First, I was busy finishing Border, then I was so intrigued by its sequel (Shadows) that I couldn't stop writing it (11,000 words and counting!). Rar. Then I had a guilt trip about neglecting Time. (You'll notice that I have a thing about codenaming my fics. It's impossible for an author to refer to fics by their full name all the time. *nod**nod*) Then I started on Psych. Then I had writer's block.   
Muse : Stop getting sidetracked! To business!

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 2 : Of Tuna Sandwiches And Things

"I have to go." He grabbed his papers and his bag and stood. _I dallied too long. I'm not.. damnit, I'm not here to give free tuition..!_

Goku looked up, his eyes widening. 

"Class in ten minutes," he clarified unwillingly, and turned to leave.

"..Sanzo.." Goku said softly. 

Sanzo spun. Spun so fast that he knocked over the coffee cup and scattered the mountain of sandwiches, creating a mini-avalanche that left tuna sandwiches all over Goku's lap and the bench.

"What... did you call me?"

"Sanzo." Goku cocked his head. "That's your name, isn't it?"

He narrowed his eyes. "And how did you know it?"

"You told me."

"I didn't."

It was Goku's turned to look puzzled. He popped another sandwich into his mouth. "I.. but it fits, doesn't it?"

__

Great. The kid knows who I am. The kid knew who I was all along and probably.. ah shit. Probably has the mental stereotypes that all the rest of them do. In other words, time to get out of here. Scram. He sighed impatiently. "Well, whatever."

"Have a sandwich."

"I'm not a fish person."

"Of course not. You're a human person."

"Ahaha. _Not_ funny." He stormed off.

***

Goku stared at the sandwich.

The sandwich stared back.

"Why..."

Naturally, the sandwich didn't answer.

"I don't normally do that.." Goku continued, as if talking to a tuna-mayo sandwich that hadn't been alive in a long time, let alone sentient (bacteria doesn't count), was something he did everyday. Of course, sandwiches, like books and coffee, do not make good conversationalists. But if you try hard enough, you can convince yourself that they're excellent listeners.

Absently, Goku took a bite out of the sandwich. Sure, he was the spontaneous sort, who said hi to classmates and people he met at checkout counters.. but this was different. This was.. well, he should just have given the paper back and been on his way. 

__

I listen to my instincts too much, he thought ruefully. He hadn't been _thinking_ when he did that. He hadn't even considered asking for help with that stupid physics assignment until the words just popped out of his mouth.

__

And the telephone number thing... he was mortally embarrassed. He absolutely, totally, profoundly embarrassed.

__

Weirdness. Utter weirdness.

But if you wanted to talk about weirdness, then you had to talk about that .. that flash of _I-know-you_ that he'd felt when he'd seen Sanzo.

__

Gold hair. Purple eyes. He'd seen them before. He was certain of that. He must have met Sanzo before. That's why he knew his name. He must have..

The sandwich was gone. He reached for another.

__

I'm not myself today, Goku sighed. Well sure, it had been fun, and he'd finished an assignment that he'd despaired of ever completing in time. _Of course, I didn't even realize it existed until this morning_. 

Mournfully, he consumed another sandwich.

Come to think of it, he'd been acting really weirdly these days. He kept running into people who were disturbingly familiar. He kept having strange dreams. And his food consumption was rocketing.

'It's because you're a growing boy', everyone told him.

__

Growing. Hah. I'm lucky if I'll ever grow another inch. Or half an inch. I'll be stuck at 5'4" _for the rest of my life!_

He made a face. 

Vertically challenged. Argh.

Another sandwich disappeared from the pile. _And at the rate I'm eating, I'm going to have a waistline equal in numerical value to my height.._ He had mournful mental images of a perfect sphere with a head and various limbs protruding from it. Terrible. 

__

Wait... when did I ever start worrying about my weight! Argh! I'm not concerned about my weight!

Yep, he definitely wasn't himself, Goku reflected, and continued demolishing the pile of sandwiches.

***

__

Somewhere else..

People didn't sit next to him. Not if they could help it.

Hakkai wasn't sure exactly why that was so, but he didn't exactly mind. He vastly preferred a books to people.

So it was a great surprise when, this fine morning, someone came along and dropped into the vacant seat next to him. 

"Yo."

Hakkai glanced up..

..and words died on his lips.

"Who.. have I seen you before?"

"Probably. I get around a lot. Bars. Parties. Chicks." The redhead arched an eyebrow. "But you don't look like the sort who gets out a lot."

"..."

"You don't look like the talkative sort either. But that's fine by me, 'cos I'm used to listening to my own voice." He stuck a foot onto the table.

__

He has red eyes.. and that face.. I've seen it. Somewhere. A long time ago. But that's impossible, isn't it? If it was a long time ago, he'd look different.. 

"Is it the hair?" the familiar stranger asked after a while. "I know, I just got it cut. Used to leave it long, but short hair's in, you know.."

"No.. it's not the hair... I just can't help but feel that we've met before.."

"Name's Gojyo. You?"

"Hakkai. Cho Hakkai."

"Nope. Never heard of you before. But then again--"

They were cut off as the teacher walked into class. Gojyo's feet vanished from the table top so fast that they nearly left scorch marks.

"Morning, everyone. Today, we'll be going through the assignment that I gave out at the beginning of the week. I trust they've been completed."

"Eh... what assignment?" Gojyo hissed to Hakkai.

"The one... wait, you weren't here, were you? I haven't seen you since the start of the semester."

"Aw hell, it's only the first week."

"Where were you?"

"...Getting around, ya know.. catching up since last term.."

Abruptly, he became aware of a presence nearing them. The teacher smiled. "Well, since you're interested in talking, why don't you give us the first answer?"

"Um.. right." With perfect composure, Gojyo snitched Hakkai's paper. "Annnnnddd, the answer is : 42!" A smug look wormed itself onto Gojyo's face.

"That's right. By the way, I haven't seen you before.."

"I've been sick. Flu. Fever so high you could fry eggs on my head." He gave a convincing sniff. Hakkai carefully extracted the paper from his fingers.

"So you would be..."

"Sha Gojyo."

"Well, I hope you've recovered from that.. nasty flu. Strange time in the year to get a flu, though... dry season.."

"Well, you know what they say.. flu bugs bite any time of the year."

"Yes, yes, of course." 

Footsteps. The teacher moved off.

"Why do I get the feeling he was laughing at us?" Gojyo hissed.

"Laughing at you, you mean," Hakkai replied under his breath.

"Yeah. Man, is he always like that?"

"Not really. Mostly when you don't do your work."

"Dang."

"The answer, by the way, wasn't 42. It was 4.2."

"Oh _bll-ast._"

*

"You _really_ don't talk much, you know," Gojyo said to Hakkai as they filed out of the classroom.

"Not as if we're supposed to talk during lessons."

"Oh, comeon. That's an excuse, and you know it."

"There's nothing to talk about."

"Oh, you're one of those. Nothing to smile about either, right? Life is about electromagnetic induction and benzene rings?"

Hakkai gave him a level stare. "Better than wasting it in trivial pursuits."

"Ah, mister touchy. Well, I'll be off, then. And thanks for the -- wrong -- answers!" Gojyo sauntered off.

Hakkai turned and walked the other way. There really wasn't anything worth smiling about. There wasn't much point to life, in the first place. Gojyo was right. His life revolved around particle mechanics and organic chemistry. There simply wasn't any point in expending the energy to smile, when all that came out was a quiet, empty smile.

He didn't know why his life was such a wreck. He didn't know why he was so depressed. He could have explained it away as teenage hormones, except that he wasn't a teenager any more, and, thinking about it, he'd been _happier_ as a teenager. It just seemed that he'd reached a point in his life where nothing mattered any more.

He sighed quietly.

"Hi!" a chirpy voice bubbled up.

Hakkai looked up. "Hi, Goku." Well, maybe there might be something to smile about. The antics of the kid were always amusing. Funny, how he always thought of Goku as the kid, nevermind that he was eighteen.

__

He certainly doesn't look eighteen.

"What's up? You look down. Er.. pun not intended."

"Don't I always?"

"Um.. more down than usual?" Goku cocked his head. "I think I have a sandwich. Want it?"

Hakkai couldn't help but crack a smile. Goku seemed to think that food was the universal cure for all woes. Possibly for him, it was. Goku was the type who _had_ to wolf down a sandwich -- or several -- between every class. And his stomach rumbled loudly enough to drown out lecturers.

"Hey.. do you know someone called Sanzo?" Goku asked.

"I've heard of him, why?"

"I dunno. I ran into him today. And he's so familiar that I thought I'd seen him before, but he says he's never met me..."

"Sanzo's in my year. You've probably heard someone mention his name, especially if you're doing physics."

"Why? He's that well known?"

"Well, yes and no. Everyone knows _of_ him, certainly, since he's a bright spark with an attitude and a chip on the shoulder, but no one really _knows_ him. You said you ran into him?"

"Yup. He's nice."

__

Sanzo? Nice? That's not what the rumors say.. Then again..

Goku _did_ seem to bring out the nicer side in people. Like the time they'd first met...

*

It'd been a rainy afternoon. Correction : It'd been a thunder-stormy afternoon. He'd been caught in it halfway home to his apartment. As life would have it, his umbrella was sitting at home, warm and dry. So here he was, hunching in his jacket and desperately trying to shield his notes from the damp, with the ink running and making pretty patterns across the paper.

He couldn't help but notice that the rough paper caused the ink to separate into its components. Blue ink had yellow and green in it. Surprise surprise.

"Hey!"

He looked up. A kid, wearing a bright red jacket, was standing beside him.

"Yes?"

"You want to share my umbrella?"

"My apartment's not far.."

"Where are you staying?"

Hakkai gestured at the distant silhouette of the apartment block. "Just a few streets down..."

"Hey, I'm headed in the same direction. It's not _that_ close, you know."

"Well, thanks, then." 

They'd walked in silence for a bit, partially because the sound of the rain pelting down, but mostly because the lightning-and-thunder orchestra playing at full blast made it hard to hear anything. Hakkai didn't mind. Hakkai didn't like talking.

They'd met several times, heading home the same way, and he had a chance to reciprocate the favor when Goku's own umbrella went missing. Funny how life has this habit of flinging rain at you when your umbrella's miles away...

He would have to invent an umbrella that teleported to your side at the flick of a switch. Indeedy.

It was easy to like Goku. He didn't care if you weren't a particularly good conversationalist, because he could carry on a conversation with your silences and not mind at all. It was easy to like Goku when, everytime they met, he always tried to shove food on you to cheer you up. He was invariably happy and chirpy and overall, one of those people who made life seem like a better place. Even if it was just for a moment.

*

"Are you heading home yet?" Goku asked.

Startled out of the memory, Hakkai shook his head. "I have a lab session this afternoon. Have you had lunch?"

"Yep! But I'm hungry, so I need another lunch... who was that red haired guy you were talking to, anyway?"

"Gojyo? Classmate of mine."

"Mm. I've seen him around."

"You have?"

"Yup. He's nice. Gave me my first taste of beer, but I hate the stuff. It's bitter. Port's good, though. Sweet."

Hakkai had a horrifying mental image of Goku gulping priceless 50 year old Port like coke. "Um.. I guess.."

"Can't stand wine either. People say that you acquire the taste for it, but I don't think I ever will. Urg. What a taste. I wouldn't want to drink it again, nevermind all the times it'll take before I get used to that stuff."

Hakkai's smile widened a little. The kid was just so funny. He also seemed to know _everyone_ on campus, nevermind that he'd only been here for one semester..

"Sure you don't want a tuna sandwich? I brought extra. Sanzo didn't want any."

__

Gosh. Goku offered Sanzo_ a sandwich? But then again, that's exactly what he'd do.._

"You do know who Sanzo is, don't you?"

"Of course! I just met him this morning."

"As in.. you've heard of his reputation?"

"Ummm.. he's smart?"

"Well, as they say, he has so many chips on his shoulders that it's a miracle he can still stand."

"Er... he's nice. He helped me with my physics."

"He _what_?"

"Helped me." Goku waved the assignment happily.

News indeed. Someone had finally cracked that shell of ice open. People were going to lose a lot of money on hearing that... what with all the bets being stacked on Sanzo's supposedly unassailable aloftness.

A sudden thought occured to him. _Fitting that it's Goku._

"Hey, Hakkai.. what were you saying about lunch?"

"Lunch. Right."

Goku.. and Sanzo? What was it about the two that they seemed to go together?

Try as he might, Hakkai simply couldn't puzzle that one out.

***

"Remind me to sneak a fan into Sanzo's possession."  
"But, Kanzeon Bosatsu-sama.. it would look out of place!"  
"No more out of place than those four are, Jiroshin. It's good to see them finding each other again, after all this time.."  
"And the trouble that's bound to occur..."  
"Exactly. It promises to be interesting. Life's been too dull of late."

***  
TBC. If my Muse gets back to work on this one.  
***

Notes on Hakkai :  
A little OOC, but I'm taking the younger Hakkai - ie : the one who was really into books as a kid, and who didn't wear a smile all the time. Things might happen. I haven't really decided exactly what they are yet, though.

Notes on the fic :  
I have the vaguest of vague ideas where they're headed. o_O. Gotta sleep on it for a while. Urgh, my inspiration is hopping from fic to fic to fic..

Sorry about the wait -_-. Not having an idea of where your fic is headed to is a bad thing and makes for slow writing. On the otherhand, thanks for the encouragement. I might have been tempted to abandon this fic otherwise.. eek. 

***


	3. Ch 3 : Meetings and Memories

Sf : It's late, my eyes are burning, and I don't have the energy to proofread. Excuse any typographical errors.  
Muse : Sf, you need coffee.  
Sf : It's not easy, being a fanfic author.. ;_;

Warnings : Less humor than previous chapters. Angst, in select quantities.. Character injury, but nothing life threatening. Blue cheese.

__

'You'll remember me, when the West Wind moves,  
Amongst the fields of barley..' - Sting, Fields of Gold

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 3 : Meetings and Memories

The canteen was empty, fairly so. Not many people had lunch at half-past two..

Except Goku. Goku had lunch at 11:00am, 12:00pm, 1:00pm, and 2:00pm, if he could help it. On good days, he had lunch at 3:00pm as well. Everything after that was tea.

Hakkai was listening with half an ear to his companion's cheerful babble about some lesson earlier that day. Half of his mind was working out what he wanted to eat, and a little microprocessor in the back of his head was computing his budget for the day to the nearest cent.

"Hey! Sanzo!" Goku called abruptly.

Hakkai's head shot up. Silence descended on the canteen like a 50-ton weight dropped from orbital height.

The subject of Goku's cry hissed in frustration and ducked his head, as Goku went bounding up. "Hey! I didn't know you had a break.."

Sanzo just stared at him for a long moment. Then his eyes shifted to Hakkai.

Goku must have noticed. "Have you two met? Sanzo, this is--"

"Cho Hakkai."

Hakkai blinked in surprise. "Have we met?"

Something akin to a smirk seemed to twitch at the corners of Sanzo's mouth. "With all those pictures around, it's easy to recognize the youngest gold medallist of the International Chemistry Olympiad."

"Ah. I must say the same of a gold medallist of the Physics one," Hakkai said blandly.

"You know each other?" Goku asked.

"Yes.. you could say that," Hakkai replied.

Sanzo glanced at Goku. "You seem to know a lot of people."

"Well, sort of.." he dropped into the seat opposite Sanzo. "But not very well.."

"Well, that makes three of us," Hakkai said with a smile.

Sanzo shot him a Look, but didn't correct him. 

"But we know each other, ne?" Goku beamed. "I'm going to get something to eat!" He bounded off.

Hakkai took the seat next to Goku's. "Sometimes, I wonder how old Goku is."

"Eighteen."

"Mentally, I meant."

"Ah."

There was a short silence.

"How did you meet him?" Hakkai asked after a while.

"Me?" Sanzo snorted. "The kid just barged his way into my life, usurped a few hours of my time this morning, and now I can't get rid of him."

"That sounds like Goku, alright. He did the same thing to me."

"Crashed into you and stole your papers?"

"No, not really. Just bullied me into borrowing an umbrella and never left me alone after that. But he's a really nice chap.."

Sanzo nodded slowly and fiddled with his glass. "So. I thought you were here for lunch."

"I'm here for _Goku_ to get lunch. I'm not hungry."

"Thought so." Sanzo inclined his head. "Regarding that research paper you published.."

"The one about 3d and 4s orbitals?"

"Yes, that's the one."

When Goku arrived back at the table, his tray boasting a small mountain of food, he found Sanzo and Hakkai deep in a heated discussion on atomic structure. Taking a seat, he pricked up his ears and tried to follow the conversation as he eroded Mount Foodius.

__

Three down. One more to go.

Goku wondered at the random thought that popped into his mind, but paid it no further heed.

***

The jeep dream recurred to Sanzo that night. Except..

__

What the heck is Hakkai doing here?

"Sanzo? Shall we go?"

He turned. Hakkai was standing beside the jeep, one hand on the door. Except that it wasn't quite Hakkai. Hakkai didn't wear a monocle. Hakkai didn't smile that way. Wait, what_ was that he was wearing?_

"SANZZZZZZOOOOOO, harahita yo..." a voice broke out beside him.

Sanzo glanced over.

What the heck is Goku doing here? Looking like he came straight from a fancy-dress party, no less.

And what on earth is he wearing around his head?

"What?" he asked, the strange word not quite registering.

Goku cocked his head and gave him a quizzical look. "I'm HUNGRY!" 

"Then go get food! Who do you think I am? Your mother or something?"

"But we need to get to the next town.."

"Next.. town?"

"Sanzo? Is something wrong?" Hakkai asked, concerned.

Sanzo glanced back at him, frowning. "Just where are we going?"

***

__

Some time later..

"GOJYO!"

"Eh?" Gojyo turned at the sound.. no, at the _scream_ of his name. A brown bullet zipped through the crowd in the concourse to plant itself indignantly in front of him.

"Blue cheese tastes _AWFUL!_" Goku yelled. "I threw up my entire lunch after tasting it! What do you mean it's the best tasting thing in the world?!"

"Ah." Incomprehension turned to a smirk on Gojyo's face. "See, it's a delicacy. That means that lots of people pay a lot of money to eat it."

"It's just milk gone bad!"

"It's an acquired taste," Gojyo said, grinning. "Obviously, you don't have any taste, Goku."

"I'm never going to believe again! Yuck! First beer, then cheese. You're sick, Gojyo!"

"Well, _you're_ the one who insisted on trying it. And I thought you'd eat anything."

"Yeah, anything that doesn't taste as bad as that!" Goku glanced up, his furious scowl turning into something a shade happier. He bounced off with another shout. "HAKKAI!"

__

Ah, that guy has too much energy for his own good.

Gojyo smirked and took one step in the other direction, when his ears caught up with his brain.

__

Wait, did he just say 'Hakkai'? That dude from maths class?

Gojyo turned. Goku was jumping up and down, probably giving a detailed account of his blue-cheese exploits to a very bemused looking Hakkai. With animated gestures. Gojyo sauntered over. "Don't ruin my reputation, Goku."

"What reputation?!" Goku said. "You didn't have one to begin with?"

__

*boink* 

Gojyo landed a fist on Goku's hand and grinned at Hakkai. "Yo. Cute, isn't he?"

"I'M NOT CUTE!" Goku threw a fit. "Want a fist in the face, sucker?"

"You can't reach my face," Gojyo replied patiently.

"Yeah, then a knee to the--"

"Now, Goku.. this isn't the time and place for things like that.." Hakkai said frantically. People glanced over briefly, developed the usual 'Oh-It's-Goku-Again' look on their faces, and walked on. 

"Hmph," Goku sighed, and folded his arms. 

"I hear that you've been corrupting minors," Hakkai said to Gojyo, with a slight smile.

"What's that? This kid's 18. He's old enough to drink. Besides, it's high time someone taught him. I mean, I wish someone had taught _me_ to drink. Yeah, I'm just _accelerating_ his education a little, that's all."

"Goku's not quite 18.. I'd venture to say that he isn't even 16 yet," Hakkai replied, with the same glimmer of a smile. "Possibly 10, but that's stretching it."

"OYYY!! Are both of you against me or something?!" Goku growled.

"Who, me?" Hakkai replied with mock surprise. "Perish the thought.."

The bell rang.

Hakkai glanced at his watch. "Oh dear, I do believe we have a class now.." he looked at Gojyo, who looked away uncomfortably.

"Say.. when was the last time I saw you? Not since the first time you came in after your flu bug.."

"Well, yeah.. secondary infection, you know. Been flat out on my back since."

"And teaching Goku to eat blue cheese," Hakkai said blandly.

"Right. That's been a little past time of mine."

"I'm sure that it's a very good reason."

"Let me guess. The teacher's getting pissed."

"Oh no. Not yet. But he will be."

Gojyo flung up his hands. "Alright. I surrender. I was planning on going to class soon, anyway.."

"The only question being 'How Soon is Soon'?" Hakkai asked.

"Exactly. See you later, Goku! And really, blue cheese is good for you.."

"IS NOT!"

***

"You don't have a car, do you?"

Hakkai glanced up from the book he was reading. Sanzo was standing by the table.

"No, I don't."

"How about a jeep?"

"No... why would I?" Hakkai gave him a questioning look. Sanzo frowned slightly and shook his head. "Is something wrong?" Hakkai asked, when he showed no sign of explaining or moving off.

Sanzo jumped, dropping his books. Heads turned. Sanzo glared. Heads turned guiltily back to whatever they'd been doing. "No.. no, nothing. Just wondering, that's all." He gathered up his books and left as suddenly as he'd appeared.

"Strange.." Hakkai muttered.

For some reason, Hakkai was thinking of jeeps on the way home. Something about jeeps... something about jeeps and Sanzo and small white dragons was tugging at the back of his mind, like some long lost memory. 

__

What about _small white dragons?  
Oh, they transform into jeeps or something?  
Wait.. _

What had started out as a little mental joke to himself suddenly didn't sound as funny as he thought it would. Worse, it sounded _right_. As if small white dragons (with wings), turned themselves into jeeps all the time.

__

I had a small white dragon, didn't--

WAIT. Just why_ would I have a small white dragon, complete with wings and tail.. oh dear.. there're no such things as dragons, are there?_

He honestly didn't notice that the grating had rusted.

He honestly didn't realize that he was treading on it.

He absolutely did _not_ expect the rusty drain grating to give way when his foot landed on it.

It was sudden. One moment, his foot was on the grating, the next, there was a metallic clang as something gave way and hit the bottom of the drain, followed by the louder crash as the rest of the grating went in. 

Hakkai didn't notice. Hakkai was preoccupied with the fact that his right leg had hit the pavement -- hard -- as the left leg, slamming across the neighbouring grating all the way down, vanished into the drain. His foot hit the bottom, and his ankle screamed.

He stayed in that position, half in and half out of the drain, as stars danced across his vision, teeth clenched in pain. 

__

I think.. no, I wouldn't have broken something. It's not that deep. But there's this burning, fiery pain..

And I think that the ticklish sensation is blood running down the side of it. And the ankle's definitely sprained. This is bad..

First things first, get out of the drain.

He tried to push himself up, and realized that he couldn't do it with his hands alone. Taking a deep breadth, he shifted his weight to the left leg to give himself more leverage..

The world whited out for a moment under a flash of pain. 

__

Ohmygodthathurt..

"HAKKAI! Oy, Hakkai! What happened--"

He blinked, through eyes suddenly gone teary. 

Another stab of pain that seemed to race all the way to his eyeballs.

__

Suddenly, he was somewhere else, someplace else, some time_ else, with Gojyo hanging over him._

"Hell's looks a lot like an ordinary house.." he muttered.

"I'm sorry that it's too normal for you," Gojyo snapped. "And you've been sleeping for too long." 

He disappeared from view, but his voice came drifting back. "The doctor said to keep quiet and not to smoke... but I want to smoke! Let me smoke!"

"Oy! Idiot! Stop gaping!"

Snap, and he was back in the present, with Gojyo kneeling in front of him and shaking his head. "You sure know how to get yourself into scrapes."

"Could you give me a hand.." his voice shook.

Gojyo grasped his outstretched hand and yanked him out. He got onto his right leg, placed his weight on the left..

And collapsed, biting his lip against the pain.

"You are a _mess_," Gojyo gasped.

"It.. it can't be .. that bad.. the drain.. wasn't .. that.. deep.."

"It's going to need stitches. Let's get you to a doctor."

"Stitches..?" he glanced down. Some sharp edge had caught the side of his leg and sliced a massive gash all the way down. It had to be at least 6.. maybe 8 inches long.

"Sheesh.. can you stand?" Gojyo asked.

"Not... very well. I can't put my weight on it.."

"Damnit. I'll give you a hand..we'll have to get a cab or something."

It was painful enough to make him want to giggle. Instead, he staggered to his feet, leaning heavily against Gojyo, and limped to the roadside where Gojyo frantically hailed a taxi. His foot hung heavily and numbly by his side.. a serious sprain. Sweating and shivering at the same time. He couldn't recall when he'd last received such a serious injury. 

"You okay?" Gojyo's voice drifted to him.

"Yes.. yes.."

"Next time, watch where you place your damn feet! Or better still, walk on the pavement!"

He mustered a shaky smile. "I was distracted.."

Gojyo jabbed a finger at his leg. "And that's the result of being distracted. Smart, aren't you?"

Things went a little blur after that. He vaguely recalled reaching the hospital, Gojyo frantically talking to the staff..

Tetanus jabs. 

People pouring over his leg. An operating threatre. Something about fragments stuck in the wound. It sounded.. bad.

Local anaesthetic.

A lot of fuss. 

Through it all, he seemed to be drifting in and out of consciousness. Suddenly, without any obvious transition, he was back in that some time, almost where it'd left off the last time..

__

"Did.. did you save me?"

Gojyo took a deep drag on the cigarette. And another. "What a pity."

"Eh?"

"That this isn't Hell." A glance, from those red eyes, partially obscured by shoulder-length red hair. "Do you really want to die?"

He stared for a moment. "No.. not really. It's better this way. Thank you so much."

Gojyo sighed and moved to the kitchen counter. There was the clank of metal against glass, and the smell of coffee drifted over to him. "You were in a coma for a week. I did some field surgery, stuffed all your guts back in, so you should be fine."

"Ah.." he accepted the mug of coffee.

"The doctor took a look at you. Said that that you should be up and about within a month. For now, just keep still and don't move around." Gojyo took another drag on the cigarette and half-smiled at him. "This is the first and last time I'm carrying you to bed."

He smiled in response. It was funny, in a sort of way.. "Understood."

***

TBC.

***

Muse : The drain scene was inspired by real life events. Sf has undergone the same thing, not once, but twice, albeit without such serious injuries. 

Sf : The first time, sf stepped on a sidewalk, and the sidewalk gave way. Sf had very pretty parallel scratches on the left leg after that.. The second time, it was a grating, almost exactly as above. However, sf was luckier than Hakkai. Sf only had Very Serious Bruises, but narrowly escaped receiving a sprained ankle, and there were no Sharp Pointy Edges. Still, sf couldn't walk for a few days after that, so you can imagine that Hakkai would be somewhat worse..

...

sf : YES! I *know* how ridiculous it is to be injured by falling into a drain! ;_; But these things happen..

Muse : And someone threatened to kick me in the ass! That's evil, that is!

Sf : *kicks Muse in the ass*

Muse : HEY!


	4. Ch 4 : Echoes of the Past

I just realized that Chapter 3 came out a little rushed, and I may do a revision.. but in the meantime, since my Muse just received a new brainwave (or rather, has refined the idea behind Time's plot), and I've bluffed myself into believing that I have time to write, let's get the story on before anything else..... ^_^.

This is where Time gets a tad serious. It was never meant to be a purely humourous fic, although I am trying to make it light reading ^_^. Angst gets tiring after a while.

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 4 : Echoes of the Past

"Hakkai!"

The haze that had been following him around ever since he took the painkillers seemed to shift slightly. He blinked, woozy.

"Hey, Hakkai, wake up!"

"Keep the noise down, you idiot!"

__

That.. that sounded like Goku and Gojyo..

He blinked again, and his vision resolved into Goku standing by the bed, a worried expression on his face and a sandwich in one hand. Hakkai smiled tentatively. "Hi Goku."

"Hakkai! You're alright!"

"Of course he's alright. A small scratch like that won't kill him," Gojyo snorted. "Idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!" Goku snapped. 

"You act like one. Idiot."

"Dumbass!"

"Keep the noise down..." Hakkai murmured.

"Do you want a sandwich?" Goku asked. "You must be hungry.."

"He's not supposed to eat after taking all that medicine," Gojyo replied. 

"Save the sandwich for yourself, Goku."

"YAY!" Goku wasted no time in doing his Sandwich Disappearing Act (Now you see it, now you don't). "Oh," he said, talking around a mouthful. "Sanzo couldn't come. Said he was busy."

"You.. asked.. Sanzo.." the thought was mind-boggling. It wasn't as if they were best friends, or anything.. they hardly knew each other! 

__

Wait, that's not right. It feels.. it feels like I've known all of them forever.

"Yup. He said.. umm," Goku frowned. "'Tell the idiot to watch where he places his clumsy feet in future'. Yeah, that's it!"

Hakkai smiled. "That sounds like Sanzo.."

"So when are you being discharged?" Goku asked, producing another sandwich from Thin Air.

"Tomorrow. It's just a one-day stay in." He glanced at Gojyo. "Thanks for the assist."

"No problem," Gojyo replied. "Consider it repayment for the model answers you give me. Besides, it's not like I'm paying for it or anything.."

"Gojyo's just happy because he got to miss half a day of school," Goku pointed out. "On his long day, no less."

"The price of charity. Ah, all the lessons that I had to forgo..."

"Riiiiiiight," Goku replied. "So how much school are _you_ missing, Hakkai?"

"Probably a day or two, discounting today."

The painkillers seemed to be kicking in again. He missed what Goku said next, and smiled by way of apology. "I'm sorry, I'm just very sleepy at the moment."

"Oh, don't let me keep you up," Goku said, instantly concerned. "You need sleep."

"Since when did students need sleep?" Gojyo snorted.

"I know _you_ don't get any rest at night, but Hakkai's not you!" Goku snapped.

Hakkai smiled hazily at their antics, as the world faded away.

***

He awoke to find the morning sun poking him in the eyes. For a moment, he frowned, disoriented and confused.

"You really are an idiot," a dry voice reached him.

__

Oh. Yes. I'm not at home. Hakkai turned. And stared. And stared harder.

__

Maybe if I blink, he'll disappear..

"If you stare any harder, your eyeballs might fall out," Sanzo commented in the same dry tone, and continued to flip through the papers. He paused to push up his reading glasses and glanced over at Hakkai. "Cat got your tongue?"

"No. I just didn't expect to see you. Goku said you were busy."

Sanzo snorted. "I didn't intend to come. I have better things to do than to visit idiots who fall into drains."

"I hear a 'But' coming."

Sanzo scowled briefly at him, folded the paper, and put it aside. Removed his glasses and placed them fastidiously into a spectacle case. Stood, and walked over to the window, placing a hand on the sill.

Hakkai, who recognized when someone was stalling, remained wisely silent.

Finally, Sanzo sighed, as if conceding defeat to some inner battle. 

__

Here it comes, Hakkai thought.

"One understands how strange this might sound," Sanzo said, in a carefully emotionless tone. "When one, upon encountering something entirely new, nevertheless experiences a sense of deja vu, as if there exists some past and hidden knowledge of a place or person..."

Hakkai nodded carefully, unsure of where Sanzo was headed to.

"I met your classmate a few days ago," Sanzo said, switching into narrative. "Thanks to our mutual friend Goku."

*

__

He'd been trying to work in some inconspicous part of the canteen, since there wasn't enough time to go all the way to the library before the next class. When..

"SANZO!"

Oh blast. Here he comes _again_, _Sanzo sighed impatiently to himself. He didn't quite understand why the damn kid had to go and broadcast his presence to everyone. It wasn't as if he wanted to attract attention. Quite the opposite, in fact._

"Hey Sanzo! Have you met Gojyo?" Goku said, dragging his companion over. 

What the hell? Must he introduce me to every blasted friend he has?

__

"No," he replied, before--

YES, _his mind said._

*

"I've had that feeling before," Hakkai replied. "To tell the truth, it happened the first time I saw Goku.. then the first time I saw you. But.. it's not unusual, I think."

"No," Sanzo agreed. "What is unusual is.." he removed his hand from the sill, pressing steepling his fingers together and studying Hakkai over the top of his finger tips. "How do I say this.." Suddenly, he seemed to lose his nerve. Dropping his hands to his sides, he shook his head. "Never mind."

"Sanzo.. go on."

Sanzo sighed again. "I guess you could call it a hunch. It's a feeling of sort. Something about.. all four of us. You. Me. Goku. Gojyo. As if we've met before. As if we've been part of something before. Goku.. feels the same way, which is why he's been so adamant about getting us together. He seems to have some gut feeling that we _belong_ together."

__

So do I, Hakkai said silently.

Sanzo quirked an eyebrow, as if he'd said the words out loud. "Ordinarily, I'd say that this was nonsense."

"Ordinarily, you'd hit yourself over the head with a book and dive into your studies with a vengeance to get rid of this feeling?" Hakkai joked.

Sanzo almost smiled. 

"That's what I'd do, at least," Hakkai said.

Sanzo did smile then, if just a little. 

"Let me guess," Hakkai said, when Sanzo showed no sign of continuing. "You've been having strange visions? Or something?"

"Dreams," Sanzo said reluctantly. "Almost every night. If dreams are just a function of memory, or a cover for deeper brain activity when you sleep, or even the firing of random synapses.. there should be some variation, by rights. But there isn't."

"There's a jeep in it?"

"Yes."

"What would you-- wait, it involves all of us? All 4?"

Sanzo nodded, and winced. "This is so stupid.."

"What would we need a jeep for?"

"That's what I don't know," Sanzo growled. "You-- at least, that version of you, keeps insisting that we're going on this journey. Never answers as to _where_ we're going, though." He canted his head. "Bloody annoying.."

"Is that why you came?"

Sanzo narrowed his eyes. _Is that why I came? Hell no. But how do I tell him that _something_ told me to go to the hospital to visit him? Damnit, I shouldn't have come at all.. _

"You'll need a lift home," Sanzo said, ignoring the question. "Since you're discharged this morning."

"Well, I wasn't really considering that--"

"Well, consider it now, dimwit!"

"I've been having dreams too.." Hakkai said slowly. "Well, maybe dreams is the wrong word. It happened when I was injured. I might have been hallucinating, but it all seemed very familiar somehow." He smiled slightly. "No jeeps. But I saw Gojyo. Except that.. well, he had long hair."

Sanzo studied him expressionlessly. "Perhaps things will explain themselves in time," he said.

"Perhaps it's a sign that we ought to get to know each other better," Hakkai replied, his smile staying in place.

"Heaven forbid," Sanzo muttered. 

***

"Thanks!" Hakkai called, as he clattered up-- or rather, staggered up the stairs to his apartment. Sanzo stood at the bottom as he attempted the rather arcane art of managing the stairs with crutches for the first time in his life -- not offering to help, but not going away either. 

He reached the door without major mishap. "I'll take it from here," he said, smiling and fumbling for keys.

"Hmph," Sanzo muttered, and turned to leave. 

A sudden thought struck Hakkai. "About our earlier conversation..."

"Forget it," Sanzo said over his shoulder.

"Right."

"And tell Gojyo that he looks infinitely better with short hair."

"Um... right."

***

__

Several days later...

"Oh? I look infinitely better with short hair?" Gojyo said with exaggerated surprise. "Mister Genjo Sanzo?"

"Hmph," Sanzo said, turning back to the book.

By some unspoken agreement, they had managed to end up in the canteen, at the same time -- Goku in search of food, Sanzo.. just there, and Gojyo supposedly looking out for Hakkai, who'd been following Goku in the first place. 

"Wellllllll, then," Gojyo drawled.. "I think I'll just let it grow again. Besides, the chicks dig long hair."

"Are you looking for a fight?" Sanzo said dangerously. 

"Nope, I'm just courting trouble," Gojyo said sweetly, draping an arm around Sanzo's shoulders. Sanzo growled and slapped his arm away. 

"Not in front of Goku, Gojyo," Hakkai said with a wink.

Sanzo shot him an acid glare, rated around pH -2 [1]. 

"Mmm... *munch* *munch* *munch*," went Goku, happily self-absorbed in his own private heaven, which, today, seemed to include a lot of fried chicken. 

Sanzo muttered something under his breath, which sounded a lot like 'Damn idiots', and returned to his book.

"Hey, Gojyo!" a voice called out. 

All four glanced up as a shape hurtled across the canteen a la Goku style, and attached itself to Gojyo. "Gojyo! Where have you been? I haven't seen you for _two days!_" the girl cried.

Sanzo and Hakkai exchanged glances. Goku exchanged glances with his chicken, and continued eating.

"I've been in class, babe," Gojyo replied. "You know, my actual class.."

"But Gojyo, you _promised_ to take me out on Monday!"

"Yeah, but this guy here fell into a drain and I had to stop by the hospital..."

Gojyo's companion seemed to notice them for the first time. "Oh. Who are they? Your friends?"

"Just a couple of people I met along the way. Goku there is the bottomless pit, the lame one's called Hakkai, and Mister Snarly is Sanzo."

*THUD*

Sanzo casually backhanded Gojyo over the head with the book, which was, thankfully, a paperback, and continued reading as if nothing were amiss.

"OW! You stay away from that one, babe. He's nothing but--"

*THUD*

The girl giggled. "Gojyo, can't you join me for Maths today? I can't do calculus at _all_!"

"Sanzo, don't wince like that," Hakkai muttered, _sotto voce_, to his companion.

"Sure thing. Anything for a girl like you," Gojyo replied.

"If you're going to do that sort of thing, you can take it somewhere else," Sanzo growled.

"Oooooohhh, Mister Genjo Sanzo is getting annoyed, I see," Gojyo commented. Sanzo hefted the book threateningly, and Gojyo scuttled discretely out of range. "Well then, I'll be on my way. See ya around sometime.."

"Gojyo..." Hakkai called.

"Tell the teacher I'm sick or something!"

"You're _always_ sick."

"Well yeah, I fell into a drain. You pulled me into a drain. I contacted a nasty flesh-eating disease at the hospital. Make up something!"

"Umm.."

"Idiot," Sanzo muttered.

"Ahhhhhhhh, that was goooood," Goku sighed, leaning back. "Now for dessert!"

Hakkai stared at the boy who'd just polished off about 3 roast chickens by himself. And a quarter-pound steak just an hour before. "You guys want anything? A drink? Where's Gojyo?"

"Gone off. You'd better hurry if you want dessert. The next class starts in a few minutes or so."

"Don't worry about that! I'm just getting something small..." Goku raced off.

"'Small' as defined by 2 pints of ice cream," Sanzo muttered. "He must spend a small fortune on food."

"Actually, he does," Hakkai said. Something in his tone made Sanzo glance up. "Goku's running into cash flow problems," Hakkai continued. "If this goes on, he won't be able to afford the rent for his apartment."

"Then he can live on campus," Sanzo snorted. "It's his own fault that he can't afford to pay for an apartment."

"Thing is.. he can't apply for housing until next term."

"So...? He's survived perfectly well before this."

Hakkai's expression darkened. "Could you let me _finish_?"

"If you didn't go so slowly, yes. Unfortunately, it looks like we'll have to discuss this afterwards. And one thing. If you're asking me to finance his stomach, the answer's a no."

"Very well."

Goku came bounding back at that moment, several slices of cake in his hands and chocolate smeared over most of his chin. 

"Goku, you'll have to finish that quickly," Hakkai said, as Sanzo shook his head and walked off.

"Not a problem!" Goku unhinged his jaw and swallowed three slices whole. Hakkai stared. 

"Thff nff ei weecff."

"_What?_"

Goku swallowed. "That's not my record. That time was five pieces." He ran over to the sink to wash his hands. 

"Goku.. you're one of a kind," Hakkai sighed.

***

"If anyone makes any more funny comments about drains, I'm going to _kill them all!_" Hakkai said, exasperated.

"That really isn't like you, Hakkai," Gojyo replied, leaning against a pillar and sipping a Coke.

"Then _what's_ like me?"

"Tear them limb from limb, dude! Let 'em have it where it hurts!"

Hakkai smiled slightly and ran his hands through his hair. "Too messy. I prefer to keep it neat."

"So that you can hide the evidence?"

"That's right."

"So... fell into any more drains while I wasn't looking?" Gojyo asked innocently.

"You..!!" Hakkai made to stand as Gojyo discretely retreated to safety behind the pillar. 

"You're a sick man. You shouldn't be running around," he pointed out.

"I'll make an exception."

"Wait... ah, Sanzo's here. Yo. Your highness finally deigns to make an appearance?"

"Idiot," Sanzo snapped. "I wasn't aware that I had an appointment with you morons."

Gojyo lifted an eyebrow. "Well, Hakkai's _hurt_, you know. You can't expect him to get home on his own."

"Why not? He got _here_ on his own. There's such a thing as public transport. And cabs, if you can't handle buses and trams."

"Oh, but since you're here, and you have a car... oh wait, I forgot. You don't have a heart."

Sanzo sighed. "Gojyo, you'll be the death of me. I've only known you a few weeks and I want to kill you already."

"It's okay, I can get home on my own," Hakkai interrupted quickly to avoid bloodshed.

But Sanzo was already rummaging for his keys. "This way. You'd better hurry up."

Gojyo's eyes went wide. "Oh my god, I think the impossible just happened!"

*THUMP*

A significantly thicker paperback than the one that morning made contact with Gojyo's skull, and he saw flashing lights and UFOs for a little while. "For _that_, you can walk home," Sanzo said.

"Wasn't planning on going home, baby," Gojyo said with a wink. "Have a hot date this evening. Of course, I could hook you up with a handsome guy if you want--"

Sanzo literally threw the book at him.

*

"So. To pick up where we left off this morning.."

"Basically, this is the problem. It seems that no one knows Goku's parentage. He's been living with his uncle's family since he could remember, and his uncle isn't well.. exactly rich. They managed to get enough cash to get him into university, and he's been working part time to make up the rest."

"Working?"

"As a store assistant, I think. In the evenings."

"Ah. Go on."

"Goku's uncle passed away a few months ago. He left a small sum to Goku, but it wasn't very much, and now it's running out."

"With his appetite, I'm not surprised."

"At the rate he's going, it seems that he won't even be able to afford a hostel fee. He might have to drop out altogether."

"And this concerns me.. how?"

"Sanzo!"

"Recall what I said. I won't finance his appetite. Period."

"I wasn't expecting you to. However, his rent takes up a large portion of his income..." Hakkai's voice trailed off.

Sanzo brought the car to a stop in front of Hakkai's apartment and stared hard at him. "Are you suggesting..." he glanced at the apartment. "I'm not about to pay his rent either!"

"I wasn't about to ask you to. There's a cheaper alternative."

Several frown lines made a discrete appearance. "Exactly what are you suggesting?"

"You live alone, don't you?"

Sanzo sighed loudly and buried his face in his hands, resting his elbows on the wheel. With the engine turned off, silence spread over the interior of the car like molten lead. 

"Sanzo, I know it's asking a lot, but I can't put the boy up, and neither can Gojyo. My apartment's too small, Gojyo lives on campus... I mean.. as his friends, we should help him out, right? It'd be such a shame for him to have to drop out just because of financial problems..."

"Hakkai.. how long have we known each other?"

"Since term began... almost a month."

"We hardly qualify as friends, don't you think?"

"Since when was friendship determined by length of association? And if you want to go by the strange memories and hunches we've all been experiencing.. then.. I think we've known each other for a very, very long time, Sanzo."

"...Memories... desu ka..."

"What was that?"

Sanzo looked up. "What?"

"That strange word you said-- desca?"

Sanzo frowned. "I... I don't know." He shook his head. "I'm feeling..."

"Are you okay?"

"I..." his eyes were rapidly going glassy and unfocused. He seemed to be looking .. beyond Hakkai, at some scene that only he could see. 

"Sanzo? Sanzo?!" Hakkai struggled with the seatbelt, which, as it is wont to do in times like these, was stuck fast. Swearing softly under his breath, he fumbled with the catch until it released the belt with a click that matched the sudden relief in his soul. Twisting in his seat, he turned to check on his companion--

--when Sanzo grabbed his arm in midreach. Awareness snapping back into his eyes, Sanzo turned slowly to look at Hakkai. Amethyst eyes were as hard as crystal, but the gaze still seemed to be roving past him, into a different time and place.

"Hakkai... why the _fuck_ would I want to head West?"

***  
TBC  
***

Footnote : 

[1] pH - percentage of Hydrogen, an indication of the strength of an acid. The lower the pH, the higher the acidity. Water (neutral) is rated at pH 7. Hydrochloric acid is rated at pH 1.

A/N :   
Incidently, dear readers, the review button does work, nevermind that the review counter doesn't. Don't deprive us ff authors of our reviews; they're an integral part of bringing ff.net back to life. The place is quiet enough as it is.

If ff.net continues to experience downtime, I may begin hosting fics on a regular basis on my personal site, although I see no need for that as yet. At any rate, it's good to see ff.net up, even if it isn't running at its usual level efficiency. To the many authors who seem to have disappeared over the break, it's safe to move back in. Really. ^_^.


	5. Ch 5 : Of Headaches and More Headaches

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 5 : Of Headaches and More Headaches

They were seated around the table that tripled as desk, dining table and additional storage for Hakkai's countless piles of books. Hakkai swept several manuscripts on to the floor to clear a space for two mugs of coffee, then took one of the two chairs, studying his companion with something akin to worry.

Sanzo was hunched over the table, clutching at his head, and evidently nursing the mother of all headaches. An empty glass and the foil wrapping of several pills graced the meager space on the tabletop.

"Feeling better?"

"I need to invent a painkiller that works instantly," came the mumbled reply. 

"Coffee?"

"In a bit."

"Is there--"

"Yes_. Shut the fuck up!_" Sanzo snarled.

A wise man knows that silence is his friend, and if Hakkai wasn't wise, he was at least very, very intelligent. He picked up one mug and leaned back to wait.

It was a very long time since he'd last invited anyone to his apartment, and Hakkai, sipping coffee and looking around, became gradually aware of a multitude of little things that he'd seen and forgotten, or never noticed at all.

There was the dust. It seemed to have settled over everything but the books he most frequently referred to. There were the piles of books, which had started out as clear space, become neat stacks and eventually collapsed under their own weight. There were the pens, strewn around whereever he'd last used them, capped, uncapped, usable or no. 

'Dump', perhaps, was a good term to describe it, except that dumps didn't have select areas of fastidious neatness... his latest papers and findings were neatly filed or stacked in trays, until such a time when they became irrelevant to him and joined a random pile on the floor. And, in a little island of its own, his other worktable, with a laptop on one end, the printer under it, and neat rows of vials and testtubes in the middle, was an orderly, almost sterile sanctuary.

It was a small, one-roomed apartment, and he might have been able to fit Goku in, except for all the books and all the mess that just seemed to have built up over the years. The floor wasn't visible, and unless one of them slept on a mattress of books, it was going to be tight fit. 

Hakkai's eyes drifted back to Sanzo as the other sighed quietly and removed his hands from his head. The little wrinkles of tension around his eyes had smoothed out somewhat as the painkillers began kicking in. As Sanzo reached for the coffee and took a slow, tentative sip, Hakkai decided it was safe enough to venture the question that had been preying on his mind.

"What happened?"

Sanzo's eyes met his, partially obscured by the steam. He brought his other hand up to balance the mug and studied Hakkai over the rim. "I don't know."

"What--" Hakkai began, but a raised eyebrow cut him off in mid-sentence.

Sanzo closed his eyes and took a breath. "Hallucinations. I saw.. a mountain top, heard a voice -- it might have been Goku -- calling me. Something about the mountain. Something about him. And then all of you were there, and we .. we were headed West. To Tenjiku."

"Tenjiku.. isn't that India?"

Sanzo nodded minutely. 

"That was.. sudden, wasn't it?"

"Do you believe in Karma?" Sanzo asked softly.

"I.. isn't that a Hindu belief? You get what you deserve?"

"Almost correct. It is the influence of an individual's past actions on his future lives. Tied in strongly with the concept of reincarnation."

Hakkai slowly lowered his cup to the table and stared at Sanzo. The man was watching him like a cat, his own thoughts shielded behind his own calculating gaze. It would have been a sheer waste of breath to ask Sanzo what he was implying -- Sanzo didn't make idle conversation. He dropped the hint and expected you to make the connection yourself. But a connection like this.. it seemed like a huge and very tenuous leap to him. After all, even if souls were reincarnated, they weren't supposed to remember their past lives, were they? And so what if they did? 

__

But there has to be reason why the past is haunting us like this, drawing all of us together. Sanzo. Goku. Gojyo. Myself. And why does it fill me foreboding? These are my friends, and if Sanzo is correct, my friends from another lifetime as well.

A sudden thought struck him. "Sanzo... you rescued Goku, didn't you? From the cave on the mountain side. Five finger mountain.."

A flash of startlement raced over Sanzo's features. It wasn't often that he saw the man surprised, Hakkai thought. He must have hit a nerve.. damned if he knew where _that_ thought came from. It was just a random brainwave, several synapses flashing, an odd thought hitting from like a bolt from the Blue. 

"Goku..." Sanzo said softly. He placed his own emptied mug on the table, unable to hide the slight tremor in his hands. "I.. remember.. images.." He looked up, met Hakkai's green-eyed gaze that somehow contrived to be knowing and naive at the same time... stared as those irises seemed to expand to fill the world with a wash of green...

A breeze whispered past him, and the world dissolved before his eyes.

__

It was hidden about half-way up the mountain side -- a little ledge and a cave, obscured in a corner where no one would think to go, surrounded by rough terrain which no sane person would have thought to climb over. Accessible only through the steepest slope of the mountain, which, incidently, entailed boulders and treacherous footing thrown in for free.

Certainly, he'd questioned his sanity in trying to navigate the path. Not once, not twice, but many times. Many MANY times. 

But he was hardly sane, these days, what with that nagging voice screaming at the back of his mind... okay, that stupid voice calling out his name over and over and over again for years_ on end... it was driving him crazy. A few stupid rocks and an inconvenient mountain couldn't compare with it. _

And so, years of searching and months of travelling and hours of trekking later, he'd found it. And, to tell the truth, he was damn disappointed. 

He'd expected... any number of things. He hadn't expected this. The wards were impressive enough, but the contents were... the contents.. were--

  
"SANZO!" 

He came awake quite suddenly with the hard wood of the table against one cheek, a dull ache in his head and his vision gone absolutely blurry. He clawed his way upright, blinking frantically. "What the hell happened?"

"I don't know. You passed out quite suddenly. You're running a fever."

"Damn," Sanzo muttered, somehow frustrated at the sudden termination of the hallucination. Flashback. Whatever. He sat back, massaging his temples. Evidently, any number of painkillers weren't going to work, and this bitch of a headache was just going to get worse. And he damned sure didn't want to start fainting in front of Hakkai again. "I'm going home."

"Are you sure you can drive?"

"Yes." He stood, rock steady despite the dull hammering in his temples which still hadn't gone away. Hakkai looked concerned. "Are you sure you don't want to sit down for a while?"

"Quite sure." He stood and paused, one hand on the table. "Regarding the Goku issue.. have you talked to him about this?"

"I haven't suggested anything to him yet," Hakkai replied.

Sanzo waved a hand in a gesture of frustration. "Ask him. I might put him up temporarily.. if, _if_ there is no other alternative."

The surprise must have shown on Hakkai's face, because Sanzo scowled briefly and turned to leave.

"Take care," Hakkai called after him. Sanzo nodded briefly in acknowledgement.

*

"I had the _weirdest_ dream last night," Gojyo yawned, leaning back and studying his shoes. 

"Gojyo, I think .. the shoe marks on the table are becoming obvious.."

"Well, there were four of us - you, me, Goku and Sanzo. And then there was this dragon. Funny thing, he was called 'Jeep' or something. I mean, I wouldn't call a _dog_ jeep, and this is a flying dragon we're talking. Two legs. Two wings. Say.. 'Jet' might be a good name. But no, he was called 'Jeep'."

"Jeep?" Hakkai returned. "Ah, perhaps he turns into a magical jeep or something?"

"Well, you would know, since you were his owner. At least, he stuck to you a lot.."

"He?"

"Well, _it_ maybe. But I'm quite sure it was a he. Although _dragon_ anatomy isn't my speciality."

"Glad to hear it," Hakkai muttered.

"But I've never seen-- I mean, it's not like dragons exist or anything."

"Of course not," Hakkai replied nonchalantly. 

"It's not like one's going to come flying in through the window or something.."

Gojyo and Hakkai glanced at each other at the same time, then turned away hurriedly. 

"Dragons aren't real," Gojyo said.

"Of course not," Hakkai replied faintly.

*

"SANNNNNNZZZZZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooo......!!!!!"

Sanzo cringed violently as every pair of eyes in the area turned to look at him. 

A brown streak of lightning dodged through the crowd and came sailing towards him--

--unfazed, Sanzo stepped of the way.

*SLAM*

"Oy! Sanzo! You're not supposed to move!" Goku yelled from where he'd crashed into a pillar, nursing the large bump on his head.

"What the hell were you trying to do? Grope me?!"

"Now _that_ might be interesting," an unwelcomed and overly familiar voice said from nearby.

"Shut _up_, Gojyo."

Goku leapt to his feet. "Sanzo.. can I? Can I really? Can I can I can I?"

"WHAT THE HELL?!!"

"Maa.. Sanzo, I think Goku's talking about something else.." Hakkai cut in.

"Hey, Sanzo, you're blushing!"

"No, I think he's furious, that's all."

"..."

"Sanzo, I told Goku about the results of our discussion a few days ago.."

"Oh. _That_."

"Sanzo? Can I stay with you? Really?"

"Ohhh, Sanzo! You've gotten yourself a boyfriend, I see! Moving in with each other already?"

*SLAM*. Sanzo whipped out a one thousand page textbook and brought it crashing down on Gojyo's head. Then on Goku's, just for good measure.

  
Two cries of mutual agony sped up to the heavens almost simultaneously as Sanzo replaced the book without batting an eyelid. 

"I suggest that we move this discussion somewhere less public," Sanzo said, with a warning glare at Gojyo that stopped any remarks dead in their tracks.

"I second the motion," Hakkai said helpfully, gently steering Goku and Gojyo towards the door.

"From what I gathered, you're urgently in need of a place to stay, since your lease of the apartment expires at the end of the month and you can't afford to renew it." Sanzo's comment was, apparently, addressed to a blue ballpoint pen.

"Yes. And.. there isn't any place cheaper. Well, I guess I could.. no, I guess not," Goku sighed, running his hands through his hair. 

"Of course, if you ate less.."

"No way! I'd starve to death. But, seriously, I'm extremely grateful--"

"--And my understanding of the issue is that this is.. a temporary measure, until such a time when you can find an apartment.." Sanzo cut him off.

"Yes."

Sanzo sighed, lowered the pen to the tabletop, and stared at Goku. "Hakkai, tell me just _why_ I agreed to this," he mumbled out of the corner of his mouth. 

"Because you're a very nice person," Hakkai announced without a hitch.

Sanzo clapped a hand over his eyes. "I am _not_ a _nice_ person."

"Extraordinarily generous, then. Always willing to lend a hand."

"Forget I asked."

"Already done."

"One thing," Sanzo said, stabbing the pen at Goku. "I happen to enjoy peace and quiet. Make noise and I'll kill you. Mess up the place and I'll kill you. Damage anything or upset my life in any way, and I'll kill you. Understood?"

"Yup."

"If that's clear.. then I guess there's nothing else to be said..."

***

And so, with threads finer and stronger than any that man can design, Fate spun her tapestries, repeating, from time to time, a peculiar pattern of purple, yellow, green and red thread. A pattern at once contrasting and harmonizing, infinitely small in the grand scheme of things, yet forming the base on which so many other patterns were built. 

And Fate smiled and wove on, continuing events left unfinished over thirteen hundred years ago.

...Or, as Sanzo would have put it, flicked Her middle finger at them once more.

***

End : Part I : Threads of Destiny; Reunification.

TBC

***

ATA is actually an ongoing work, and Chapter 6 continues logically from the events in Chapter 5. However, I realized one night while staring at the ceiling, that it was going to be long, so I decided to split it up into parts to amuse myself. Don't worry yourself about it. 

Did you know that, in a good piece of prose, dialogue between characters is only supposed to take up about 10% of the story? By that scale, ATA is probably the worst thing ever written.. well.. almost ^_~. 

Muse : *strikes a pose* But no one writes dialogue like IIIIIII can..!!  
Sf : *grabs the 1,000 page textbook.* *WHACK*  
Muse : X_X

Alright. It seems that the last time I said that ff.net was up, it wasn't. And I have a nasty feeling that, should I say that it's up now, it'll just do it's best to prove me wrong. So give it your best shot, ff.net! I dare you to go down on me again! -_-. 


	6. Ch 6 : Relocation

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Part II : Only Time

__

"Who can say where the road goes,  
Where the day flows - only time."   
-- Only Time, by Enya

****

Chapter 6 : Relocation

"THIS PLACE IS HUGE!"

Goku's exclaimation went racing up the stairs and through the empty rooms and down the corridors, generating echoes that sped back and created echoes of their own.. until all was left was a massive, booming noise that left Sanzo wincing in its aftermath.

"Did you know," he ground out, "That if you did that on a mountaintop, you'd trigger off an avalanche of such magnitude that _there wouldn't be a mountain left?_"

"Aren't you glad that we aren't on a mountain, then?" Goku grinned.

__

Mountains. _I found him on a mountain, didn't I?_

"Why? Do you have something against mountains?" Sanzo pushed. 

"No, I-- No, I don't. Never seen a mountain." Goku had turned away from him to study the hall, and Sanzo couldn't see his expression. But that slight slip, that slight pause of uncertainty.. 

Could be anything, really.

He sighed. "Well?"

Goku glanced back. "Hm?"

"Are you going to stand there all day or what?" 

__

Why did I agree to put him up? Why why why?

Because you're stupid, that's why. Or you're a very nice person.

Shut up! I'm not a nice person!

Stupid, then.

I'm not stupid either!

In some ways, you're a sucker for trouble.

Oh yeah.

*

"I can't believe.. you have _four_ bedrooms, _two_ guest bedrooms, a study, a library--"

"--you can stop now--"

"--a dining room, an indoor kitchen and an outdoor kitchen, a reading room--"

"--_did you hear what I just said_?--"

"--a _tennis court_, a swimming pool--"

"--I don't have a freaking swimming pool!--"

"--a living room, half a dozen storerooms, an attic, a basement, a veranda--"

"--_will you shut up already?_--"

"--four balconies, an outdoor pavilion, massive gardens--"

__

Why did I agree to this? Why why why...

"--And you're the only one living here...! That's amazing!"

"Unnghhh," Sanzo groaned, slumped in an armchair. Goku came racing down the stairs after a thorough exploration of the grounds, his eyes shining and a massive grin splitting his face.

"What do you do with all this space?"

"I don't," Sanzo cast him a baleful look. "As a matter of fact, I live almost entirely off the first floor."

"Oh. So I can have the second and third floors?" Goku said, an evil gleam in his eyes. 

Sanzo sighed and pushed himself upright. "Let's get a few things straight. One. That's a _pond_, not a pool. The only things allowed to swim in it are fish."

"What about the terrapin I saw?"

"Two. I save a hell lot of time and money on cleaning and maintainence by keeping a lot of rooms locked up and not used. So don't you _dare_ go on a rampage and start messing everything up."

Goku was inspecting the fridge. "You don't have a lot of stuff in here.."

"Three. This is _my_ freaking house, and my word is law. So if I say _Get your damned head out of my damned fridge, _you do just that, get it?"

"Ehehe." Goku looked up, grinned sweetly at Sanzo and popped his head back into the fridge. "Nope, you definitely need a larger fridge."

"What have I gotten myself into?" Sanzo asked, for just about the millionth time that day. 

The doorbell chimed.

"I'll get it!" Goku said, jumping up and clattering down the stairs. Sanzo just covered his eyes and sank deeper into the armchair. "Sanzo! It's Hakkai and Gojyo!"

"As if things weren't bad enough as they were..." Sanzo muttered.

Footsteps, coming up the porch and clattering on the stairs. He could make out three different sets - one quick and light and bouncy and just brimming with energy, one loud and stompy and as irreverent as its owner, one quieter and slower and more reserved, it's irregular rhythm betraying a slight limp.

__

I should write a book on the Science of Footsteps.

Gojyo whistled. "Nice palace you have here."

Sanzo muttered something rude under his breath.

"Say... how about all of us move in here? You'd have more than enough space, by the look of it," Gojyo continued relentlessly.

"No way in Hell. One of _him_ is bad enough," Sanzo said, jerking a thumb at Goku. "Having all of you in here would be worse than being stuck in a tea cup with the Apocalypse."

"You could always move out."

Sanzo grabbed a volume of the Encyclopedia Britannica off the shelf and hefted it threateningly. Gojyo scuttled behind Hakkai. "Hey, hey, people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw books."

Hakkai held up his hands. "Leave me out of this..."

"Sanzo, I'm hungry... is there anything for tea?" Goku said, bounding up.

"No! Get your own food, dumbass!"

Gojyo grinned. "--Let's go get something to eat." 

"YEAH!" Goku chorused.

"..Shut.. _up_.." Sanzo snarled.

"Come on, Sanzo!" Goku said, heading for the door, with Hakkai and Gojyo on his heels.

"Why would I want to go out with the likes of you?!"

All three turned around and smiled sweetly at him.

"..." _This feels.. terribly familiar, somehow._

There was a brief pause. 

"_Fine._" Sanzo stood and swept past them. "And Gojyo, you're paying."

***

And so the days went by. And by. All was peaceful, except when Goku got on Sanzo's nerves, during which a well-read paperback of Sanzo's was well-used on Goku's head. Gojyo continued to skip class, Hakkai gave up covering for him and tried to persuade the teachers that his errant red-haired classmate was a figment of their imaginations. Hakkai's injury healed rapidly, leaving just a thin red scar but no permanent damage. 

And Kanzeon Bosatsu watched over all of them, or rather, watched all of them, cracking the occasional joke about 'Reality shows' to Jiroshin...

Then one day, several weeks after the relocation, something peculiar happened.

"_Sannnnnnzooooooooooooooo_, I'm _hungry_, and there's nothing to eat!"

"Idiot!" Sanzo cried in exasperation. "That's because you ate everything! If you're hungry, walk out and buy something!"

"But _Sanzo_, it's late, and I can't drive, and I don't want to walk..."

"_Shut up_, Goku! I'm trying to work!"

Goku took a deep breath. "Sanzo, could you give me a lift down to the supermarket?"

"No."

"But there's nothing for breakfast."

"Serves you right."

"Then I'll take the car, anyway."

Sanzo flung his pen down, spun around on the swivel chair, and glared. It was late. Well, late to be rushing out to the supermarket just to appease the kid's appetite. Everything would be closed by time they got there. Living on the edges of town had its disadvantages...

"Plee-eze?" Goku asked, in that annoyingly cute way of his. Unfortunately, Cute had never worked on Sanzo. In this life and the ones before.

"Goku."

"Yup?"

"It is 10:14pm. I have a paper to hand in by tomorrow. Thanks to your incessant whining, I'm only halfway through it. If you don't _shut up _and go to bed or concentrate on your own work, I'm going to be up until 4 this morning. And you will be very, very dead."

Goku flopped over the table and sighed loudly. "I'm going to starve to death anyway..."

Sanzo turned back to his work.

There was silence for a while, as a gentle breeze stole in from the open window. Sanzo sat at his desk, alternately writing and typing furiously. Occasionally, he glanced over to consult a paper or a book. The computer hummed quietly in the background. Goku sat at a smaller table that had been set up since his arrival, bored and hungry. Bored primarily because there was no food, but also because there was also nothing else to do and no one to talk to. Sanzo was not the best of conversationalists. 

Eventually, when his stomach started growling, Goku decided to risk it.

"Ne, Sanzo."

"_What_?" Sanzo asked dangerously. "Waste my time and I'll waste you."

"Are you _sure_ there's nothing to eat? I mean, what about breakfast?"

"I can live without eating breakfast."

"But I can't!" Goku wailed. 

"I .. told.. you .. to .. shut .. _up_..!" Sanzo snarled.

"Won't!" Goku said perversely.

*THWACK*

"OWWWWWWWW~~~!!!"

Goku tumbled off his chair, clutching his head. "What was _that?_"

Sanzo didn't answer. Sanzo was staring at the very innocent looking white fan that had mysteriously appeared in his hand. (There was a chibi Sanzo on it and the words 'Bakazaru', but those vanished in a hurry).

__

Where the bleep did this come from?

"SANNNZZZOOO!! What did you do that for?"

__

Then again... do I really care? Sanzo rolled up his sleeve and neatly smacked Goku over the head with the fan again. "To shut you up."

"And where do you get that from?"

*SMACK* Sanzo glared pointedly, and Goku clamped his mouth shut. And watched in astonishment as the fan neatly disappeared into thin air again.

"Wahh? How did it do that?"

"How on earth would *I* know?"

"Well, it's your fan! And now both my stomach and my head hurt..."

Sanzo sank into his chair with a sigh. "There really is no shutting you up?"

"You should know that by now. I mean, if I don't get food, the acid will chew through my stomach lining and give me an ulcer. Then it'll be worse, won't it? Call it a survival mechanism."

"Sometimes, I think that you wouldn't die even if someone killed you," Sanzo muttered.

Goku scratched his head. "No, that really doesn't make sense."

Sanzo had turned his back to him again and was rummaging in a drawer.

"Is that were you kept the fan? That was fast! And you know, Gojyo and Hakkai are coming over this weekend.. we'll need food for that! In fact, you might not need breakfast, but I do. It would hardly be pleasant if I developed gastric from not eating regularly. And you should eat more too. You don't eat or sleep enough-- ow!"

The tirade was cut short by a projectile slamming into his head at the Speed of Being Thrown With a Lot of Force. Goku opened his mouth to complain...

...and the package tumbled into his lap.

"Oh .. my .."

What happened next was too fast for Sanzo to avoid. Certainly, if he'd seen it coming, he would have taken evasive action. A great deal of evasive action. Involving 9G turns if necessary.

One moment, Goku was still seated in his chair, the next...

*GLOMP*

"Let _go_ of me, you IDIOT!"

"SANZO! You did have food! I'm eternally in your debt! And it's _Oreos!_"

"Did you hear what I said? LET GO, DUMBASS!"

Goku let go and jumped back with a grin before Sanzo could punch him. The older man stalked forward, apparently pulling the fan out from the air behind his back. Clutching his precious pack of oreos, Goku turned and rushed for the door at the same time Sanzo brought the fan smacking down. There was a solid thump as it whacked the table, followed by the sound of furniture clattering over as Sanzo set off in hot pursuit. 

Any passersby would have been treated to a cacophony of crashes, clatters and curses. These were occasionally interrupted by thumps and cries of "_Get back here, you idiot!_" and "_Not on your life!_" Lights flickered on, and if one listened carefully, it was evident that the noises followed the sequence of appearing lights. 

This went on for about ten minutes.

Finally, there was the resounding slam of a door being closed and locked in a hurry, followed by a series of bangs, and more curses. And above all of that, the sound of helpless laughter from another, younger voice.

***

"Goku appears to have settled in comfortably," Kanzeon Bosatsu commented.

"For him, certainly. For Sanzo.. that's another matter altogether."

"Sanzo's life has definitely become more exciting. That can only be a good thing. He was always so bored.."

"I think he'll appreciate boredom now, Bosatsu-sama."

"Truly said. Perhaps I should get Hakkai and Gojyo to move in after all..."

"There's such a thing as overkill. Sanzo would rather bite off his own tongue and die, methinks."

"Ah, that's true. What a pity..."

***  
TBC!  
***

Special thanks to Icka for the fan idea and Lishan for pressing me to implement it. Aren't reviewers wonderful? ^___^ 

This was another short chapter -- I swear that the chapter just wrote its own ending so nicely that I couldn't *possibly* not use it as an ending. Besides, it's almost 12 and I want to go to bed. ^_~. (You can tell that I'm getting tired. My level of coherency is plummeting.)

The flashbacks are intentional. The quoting of lines from the manga/anime is intentional. There were a few in this chapter... see how many you can spot! *g*

Next up : The spotlight moves back to Hakkai and Gojyo..


	7. Ch 7 : Arrivals

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 7 : Arrivals

"It's almost a pity..." 

That soft murmur wasn't, probably, intended for her ears, but Kanzeon Bosatsu responded anyway. "What's a pity?"

There was the tread of quiet footsteps across a marbled floor, and an even quieter sigh. "It defies logic, certainly. But I almost miss them."

Out of the corner of her vision, Kanzeon glimpsed a flash of white silk, and above that, with just the hint of scales on one cheek, even whiter skin. Pupiless eyes, two gleaming rubies in a face that other lacked all color, turned to regard her with their patient gaze.

"Why?"

A gentle breeze whispered across the surface of the lotus pond and leapt up to tangle white tresses. "I do not know, myself."

They gazed into the rippling surface. If one concentrated hard enough, it seemed that there were images in that pool -- a blond-haired 20 year old chasing after a younger boy with a mysterious white paper fan... another two yearmates, one brown haired and one who's hair was a curious shade of bright red, engaged in a game of poker...

"Actually, I hoped that you would be able to explain it to me, Bosatsu-sama."

"Goujun... Hakuryuu... there is more to life than merely logic. I thought you learnt that."

"Certainly, I became more familiar with the concept of.. emotion. However.. I confess that I do not understand it."

Kanzeon turned to regard him then. Those patient, imperturbable ruby eyes were shadowed as they stared off into the images in the pond. "No one really understands emotion," she told him.

"Perhaps... I wish to join them again," Hakuryuu said hesistantly.

"You have played your part," Kanzeon replied gently. "There is no reason for you to travel with them again."

"They will need help," came the reply, low and steady. "There is much yet for them to do."

"They won't need a jeep, that's for sure."

That slow, steady gaze turned back to her, with a flicker of what might have been anger. "There are other ways of being of assistance."

"If you descend to the world, you will not be able to return until all is complete," Kanzeon warned. "And you will not remember all that has passed up here."

"I am a dragon. We do not forget."

"Consider it well. If that is what you truly desire, I cannot stop you. But you were never one to act rashly. Don't start now."

Hakuryuu inclined his head. "I will think on it, Bosatsu-sama."

***

"Call," Gojyo said, laying down his hand. And swore as he saw the slight upraised eyebrow and the crinkle of a smile at the corners of his partner's eyes. "Damn."

"It's only peanuts," Hakkai replied, as he claimed another pile.

"Yeah, but it's the _spirit_ of the thing," Gojyo muttered, cracking open a shell and crunching the contents. "Give me a moment. Going to get another beer."

They were in Gojyo's hostel room, Hakkai seated on the bed and Gojyo on the one chair that he owned. Well, until Gojyo stood and sauntered over to the small fridge in one corner of the room.

"You don't spend much time in here, do you?" Hakkai commented.

"Huh? What? No, I don't," Gojyo said, his voice partially muffled by the fridge door. "Where is the damn thing..."

Hakkai nodded. The room looked, for all its mess, pretty much unlived in. It was the kind of room that suggested that its owner came back to it only to crash and maybe dump books and files after lessons.

Not that Gojyo had many books and files, at any rate. Studying to him was something he did in his spare time - of which he didn't have very much, between the all important occupation of taking out his latest girl and his usual circuits around the pubs. Funnily enough, he managed to earn his credits any way, even if he didn't pass flying colors.

__

I, on the other hand, study too hard.

"Hey, wakey wakey," Gojyo called him. Hakkai blinked and dropped off whichever cloud his mind had been inhabiting. "Yes?"

"I _said_, do you want a drink?"

"Water, please."

"_Water_? When there's perfectly good beer?"

"Beer is 90% water," Hakkai said calmly. 

"And tastes 90% better."

Hakkai smiled. "I'm afraid that I was never very fond of beer. Too bitter."

"Oh well, have it your way." Gojyo dumped a glass of water and a beer can on the table and dropped into his chair. "Another hand?"

"Certainly."

__

It's a good feeling, Gojyo grinned mentally. _Getting this guy out of the library for a change. I mean, I thought that blondie didn't have a life, but this dude is worse.. well, almost._

Hakkai glanced around for a clock, failed to find one, and checked his watch instead. "Weren't you supposed to join Lucy for dinner?"

"Not any more," Gojyo scowled momentarily as he shuffled cards. "Not after she went totally postal when she saw me talking to someone else."

Privately, Hakkai thought that Gojyo had been doing more than just talking to said someone, but he kept the thought to himself. "I'm afraid that this will have to be the last round... I have to be somewhere at 7."

"What, studying again? Appointment with fellow geek in the library?"

"No, not at all. I'm going to the airport. My sister's flying down to visit for the long weekend."

"Hm," Gojyo replied, dealing the cards. "Raise you five." 

Hakkai obligingly added more peanuts to the pile and drew another card.

"Say, mind if I come along? Kinda bored, you know. And it's been a while since I went to the airport."

Hakkai glanced up in surprise. "I..."

"Okay, okay, I _promise_ not to hit on your sister, k? Sheesh, man, don't you trust me?"

"It's not that. It's just sudden, that's all."

Gojyo drew another card. "Rule of the house : I _never_ spend Friday evenings at home. And there's a nice place where we can get dinner and a few good drinks just beside the airport... Call. Two pairs." 

"That would be fun, yes," Hakkai replied with a smile. "Full house."

"Argh, that's the _seventh_ hand you've won in a row!"

***

"So... you close to your sis?" Gojyo asked, glancing at the screen which read : Flight 107 : Arrived.

"Oh yes, very. Our parents passed away when we were young."

"And you brought her up?"

"Well, not really. We're twins."

"Ah, that's a surprise. I always thought you were older."

The baggage chain was starting to move, and Hakkai squinted through the glass. "We never did find out who was older..."

"So what's she doing now?"

"Working." There was a sudden tension in Hakkai's tone that suggested that he didn't want to talk about it.

__

Ah, yes. One sibling goes to college on a scholarship, the other .. doesn't quite make it.. at least they're still on speaking terms. I lost contact with my brother after... well, let's not think about that, shall we?

Gojyo glanced around. Damn, but it was crowded. There were a huge number of flights arriving tonight.. which meant lots of people waiting around and lots of people just hanging around for the heck of it.

__

Hey, guys, get a life. On the airport on a Friday night? Don't you have any better place to hang out? Ah, wait, I'm_ hanging out at the airport on a Friday night. Dum-di-dum. Any one have a life for sale?_

The crowds shifted, and abruptly, Hakkai broke out in a real grin and began waving.

__

Whoa, that's another first. Hakkai grinning and waving... wish I'd brought a camera. 

"This way," Hakkai told him, making a beeline for the glass doors.

"You haven't told me : Is she pretty?"

"_Gojyo_!"

"Okay, alright. No need to club me over the head."

"I mean, _of course_ she's pretty. She's my sister, after all."

"There's something really, really wrong with you tonight, Hakkai."

She was pretty, well, sort of. Certainly not the prettiest girl he'd ever seen, certainly not someone who'd make heads turn and have a thousand supertankers launched after her... But looked like the type who was really sweet and really caring and probably owned a bunny at some point in her life...

And, awwww, it was so heart warming to see Hakkai hugging her like that...

"This is Gojyo, the classmate I've been telling you about," Hakkai told her, with a quick wink.

Instantly, Gojyo started worrying just _what_ Hakkai had been saying about him. _Hakkai, buddy, you and I are going to have a loooong talk about this.._

"And Gojyo, this is my sister, Kanan."

__

Bam.

That was the only way to describe it. Bam bam BAM and a huge knock on the head by a Spiritual Hammer cast by a Level 15 Cleric...

He didn't know how he managed to choke out a greeting and a smile around the darkness that suddenly fall over all of them. It was a massive, stifling, sinking sense of foreboding, as if the whole world was just seconds away from going to Hell in a hand basket. Express delivery with priority labels plastered all over it...

__

Kanan.

There was something about that name that conjured up a nameless sense of horror which he absolutely couldn't place. A sudden surge of fear, not just for the girl's sake, but, more importantly, for the sake of the brother who loved so much...

"Gojyo? Are you okay?"

The shadows cleared, giving way to real light and real conversation and real people.

"I..."

__

Dude, what's wrong with you... you've only just met the girl. Come on, pull yourself together..

"I'm fine," he smiled.

"You're pale.." Hakkai said accusingly.

"Ah, gastric. I didn't have lunch today," he said, with an apologetic grin. It was true, his stomach was starting to cramp and gurgle in a way that told him, all too clearly : Peanuts and beer do _not_ make a good meal. 

"I have an antacid," Kanan said hurriedly, rummaging in her bag. "Do you have water? Hakkai?"

"I'll get some from the dispenser. Gojyo, sit down." Hakkai touched him briefly on the arm and disappeared into the crowd.

"I'm so sorry..." Kanan said apologetically.

"It's not even _remotely_ your fault, so don't you dare to feel guilty about it," Gojyo told her. "And I've always had this problem, since I was a kid. Then I thought I outgrew it, but I guess beer on an empty stomach's a bad combination."

"A very bad combination," Kanan agreed with a slight smile that was so similar to Hakkai's. In fact, she did look quite a bit like his classmate.. the same, dark brown hair, grown past the shoulders and tied neatly into a braid, the same, startlingly green eyes.. but her face was a little warmer, a little happier, a little less serious than her brother.

"Water," Hakkai announced, shoving a paper cup in his left hand and a little charcoal tablet into the other. 

"Thanks. I really should carry my own.." he crunched the tablet with two quick chews and swallowed the bitter mixture as quickly as possible. "Much better. Now... shall we have dinner?"

__

And that stupid panic session can go and stuff it. Like, really_ stuff it..._

***

His hair flapped against the back of his neck, still too short to tie up. Absently, Gojyo flicked a stray wisp behind his ear, only to have the wind tug it loose again. "Will you be staying with Hakkai?" he asked of Kanan.

"No, he doesn't have enough room," she replied with a twinkle in her eye. "I'll be staying at a small hotel in town."

"You know, Hakkai, if you just _cleared up all those books_..."

"Well, that's what Kanan's here for. I can't do it myself," Hakkai replied. "Plan for the first day - clear up all the paper. Plan for the 2nd day, clear up all the books..."

They were standing by the road, watching the cars zip past and waiting for a cab. The street lights glowed steadily, chasing away the darkness. 

"You know, it suddenly strikes me what a _bad_ idea this is, trying to catch a cab on a _Friday night_," Gojyo said, slapping his forehead with a groan. "We're all idiots."

"Well, it would be a little hard to catch a bus with all the luggage," Hakkai said, gesturing.

"Eureka. Let's call Mister I-own-a-car Genjo Sanzo and ask him for a lift," Gojyo said. "He lives around here, after all."

"Would _you_ like to call him, Gojyo?"

"You're on better terms with him than I am."

"Perhaps he's not home on a Friday evening?"

"Him? The only person besides you who doesn't have a social life?"

"I really don't think we should be troubling him..."

"He owes us a favor."

"He does?"

"Well, er... not really... hey, is that a cab? Hey, stop! STOOOOOOOPPPPPPP!!! OYYYYY!!! ARGHHH!!!"

A little dint of effort and a little while later, they were all safely in a cab and heading back. "We'll drop Kanan off first, then you, then me," Hakkai told Gojyo.

Gojyo, seated in the passenger seat, twisted around. "You need to pass me those notes. I'll drop by your place then walk back to the hostel."

"Oh, right, I'd forgotten."

"I think the sky just fell..."

"Did it?"

"The great and mighty Hakkai, He-Who-Has-The-Photographic-Memory, just _forgot something!_"

"I should leave you by the roadside," Hakkai said evenly.

"Aww... who's acting like Sanzo now?"

"Speaking of Sanzo, are you joining us for dinner tomorrow night?" Hakkai queried.

"_What_ dinner? You and him getting all cosy together?"

"No, no. Goku arranged dinner. He wanted to meet Kanan."

"Oh. Sure. What time is it?"

"Seven. Drop by my place at about six-thirty.. Sanzo will be fetching us from there."

"Ah. Right. Why didn't you tell me earlier?"

"Well, Goku was supposed to spread the word..."

"_Goku_ was supposed to spread the word."

"Er... okay, I see the problem..."

Gojyo leaned back and glanced out of the window. "I hope Sanzo doesn't traumatize Kanan."

"I'm sure he won't," Kanan replied with perfect seriousness. _Awww... such a sweet girl.._

"I wouldn't count on it. Look, if he pisses you off, you have every right to slap him, got that?"

"Oh dear, will that really be necessary?"

"It might. In fact, it probably will be. I'm looking forward to it myself..."

***

The sky was clouding over in a way that threatened rain by the time they dropped Kanan off at the hotel. Not that, it being night time and all, this weather phenomena was terribly obvious or anything.

Which is why both Hakkai and Gojyo were taken by surprise when rain came slating down as they reached Hakkai's apartment. 

"Bah. This sucks," Gojyo muttered, as massive drops splashed off his shoulders. No light drizzle, this. "Hurry..."

Hakkai fumbled for his keys and hurried up the stairs. And stopped abruptly.

"Yo, what is it?" Gojyo called from behind.

"Take a look." Hakkai knelt to examine something on the step. Rather annoyed at the delay, Gojyo followed.

"Oh.. my..."

They exchanged a look.

"Dragons aren't real," they said simultaneously.

But if the bedraggled little bundle on the top step was any judge, it seemed that they'd just been proved oh, so wrong.

A pair of sad ruby eyes regarded them, as the creature flapped what was obviously a wing. It looked like a white lizard, except that no lizard had little horns and wings... and what looked like a thin mane of white hair running down the back of its neck. 

"Kyuu..."

***  
TBC  
***


	8. Ch 8 : Of Dragons and Dinner

sf : Why is it that *every time* I open this document, I'm hit by this incredible coffee craving?   
Muse : Because I've run out of Hazelnut coffee... again!

****

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 8 : Of Dragons and Dinner

"Hello? Goku? Yes, it's Gojyo. You guys want to pop by Hakkai's a little earlier? We picked up something really weird yesterday. Yeah, it's a surprise. What? No. I'm not going to tell you. Awwwww, tell Sanzo to shove it for once. 6 pm. Okay, see you."

Gojyo replaced the receiver and glanced across to where Hakkai was bent over a white bundle on the table. It remained motionless for a while, but when Hakkai placed a dish in front of it, a little white head popped out of the blanket with a chirp.

__

The little bugger is _cute.._ "So how is he this morning?"

"Doing well," Hakkai said. "I'm just trying to persuade him to eat something. What _do_ dragons eat, anyway?"

The dragon-- _lizard!_ Gojyo's mind insisted -- sniffed the contents of the plate and eyed them uneasily. Finally, it gave a snort of disgust and shoved the plate over with the tip of its nose. "Kyuu!"

"What _was_ that?" Gojyo asked, as Hakkai winced. 

"Vegetables... lettuce..."

"Oh man... give the critter something _edible_, will you?" Gojyo was interrupted as the dragon wormed its way further out of the blanket, and sniffed the air. Then, with a squeak, it launched itself into the air, flapped unsteadily from the table to a nearby pile, and began attacking the pack of biscuits that had been left there from the night before. 

Gojyo and Hakkai watched with a mixture of surprise and fascination as it attacked the pack of digestives, and began crunching them with evident delight. _Crunch crunch munch munch.._ Then, finding to its dismay that its newfound food supply was finite, the dragon fastidiously cleaned up the crumbs, then glanced at Hakkai and chirped imperatively. 

"Understood," Hakkai replied with a smile, and, rummaging under his desk, brought out another pack. 

"Kyu!" With a flutter of white wings, it transitted from the temporary landmass (formed from, amongst other things, Hakkai's chemistry textbooks and notes), and returned to the table. "Kyu!" 

"You can't survive on biscuits alone," Hakkai told it sternly, as he placed one on the table. 

Gojyo could _swear_ that the dragon shot Hakkai a scornful look. 

"Why not?" he asked. "After all, biscuits are the staple food of most students."

"Well, but... they're _my_ biscuits," Hakkai replied, with just a hint of peevishness.

__

It certainly looks better than it did last night...

__

It'd registered after a while that it was raining_ and _pouring_, and that by standing outside Hakkai's apartment gaping at a dragon/lizard/thing, they weren't getting any drier._

"Ah, let's just get the critter out of the rain," Gojyo said, bundling it up, as Hakkai unlocked the door. They clattered into the lobby, leaving puddles on the floor. Hakkai glanced at the rain, which was, by now, pouring steadily, and back at Gojyo. 

"This certainly is unexpected."

"What is_ it?" Gojyo asked, studying his sodden bundle._

"It's obvious, isn't it? It's a dragon," Hakkai replied, shaking out his coat and heading for the stairs. "Come on."

"Yeah, so it's a dragon_, which we all agree doesn't exist... so what the hell do we _do_ with it?"_

"Why, we get it dry, for a start. That and ourselves too." 

__

So they'd relocated to Hakkai's room, all three of them, and Hakkai's busied himself with taking care of the ... dragon... while Gojyo hunted through Hakkai's shirts for something he could borrow. Or, rather, hunted for _Hakkai's shifts._

"Where did_ you say your shirts were?"_

"Over there... near the bed," Hakkai waved absently.

"And I thought I was bad. Jeez, even your cupboard's full of books."

"Best place for them, really. What do dragons eat?"

"Fair maidens."

"I don't think this_ fellow dines on maidens. He's too small for that."_

"Kyuu..." the dragon/lizard.. okay, dragon_ whimpered, as Hakkai tried to towel him off._

"He doesn't look like he's hurt, at least." 

"Maybe he just needed shelter from the storm, you know. Or maybe... ah, who knows..." Gojyo finally located a usable shirt and exchanged his soaked one for it. 

He'd hung around for another hour or so, waiting for the rain to abate, as Hakkai fussed around his new charge. Eventually, however, the dragon simply settled for burying himself into a blanket and falling asleep. By then, Gojyo had decided it was past time for him to make tracks for home, with a promise to be round 'First thing tomorrow'.

'First thing tomorrow'turned out to be 11:00am for late-risers. Hakkai was reminded of this as he fished out his watch from under a random pile. "Hm.. Gojyo, could you take Jiipu over to your place for the afternoon? I promised Kanan I would take her out, and I don't want to leave him alone."

"Take _who_ over to my place?"

"Oh, Jiipu.. it's a joke really. I kept having this dream about dragons who turned into Jeeps, so I thought that 'Jiipu' might be a good name for the little guy."

"Oh fine, I'll just bring... Jiipu ... over and hope that he doesn't steal too many of my peanuts or crap on my bed. Good thing I didn't have anything planned for the afternoon. But say.. how am I supposed to smuggle 1 white dragon, small, into the hostel, without admin throwing a fit? You know the rules about pets."

"Actually... I'd forgotten..." Hakkai stared at Jiipu, who chirped at him and attacked the pack of biscuits again. Absently, Hakkai pulled another digestive out of the pack and fed it to him. "I guess we could put him in a bag, leaving a space for air.. it's not that far." He wandered across the piles of books, hunted around, and eventually emerged with a carrier bag, about a foot wide and two feet across.

"Now it's all a matter of .. getting the dragon into the bag," Gojyo said, eyeing it doubtfully. "Easier said than done."

"We'll never know if we never try."

In the end, it turned out to be as easily said as done. With enough biscuits, Jiipu was content to snuggle into a bag well padded with blankets, and didn't even protest as Gojyo half-closed it. 

"Little guy's smarter than we give him credit for," Gojyo muttered, as he hefted his load.

"And greedier." Hakkai shook his head. "I still can't believe that we've picked up... something that we all agree doesn't exist."

"I'm still in denial," Gojyo replied. "All set? Let's go."

***

__

Later that evening...

"This had better be worth my time," Sanzo muttered dangerously, as Hakkai met them at the door. 

"Oh yes, it will be. Just wait for Gojyo to drop by, will you? It's with him."

"What is it, Hakkai? What is it?" Goku asked, practically bouncing up and down in his enthusiasm. "Where is it? Why is it with Gojyo?"

"Sssh, it's a surprise."

Sanzo rolled his eyes. "Idiot, settle down." This last was directed at Goku. 

"I'm not an idiot," Goku replied, more of a reflex action than an actual, conscious reply, and returned to fidgetting. 

"Welll, is _everyone_ here?" Gojyo drawled from the doorway. "And look who I picked up on the way in..." 

Kanan smiled and greeted the room shyly. 

"Your sister?" Sanzo asked Hakkai.

"Indeed. Kanan, meet Sanzo, Goku... guys, my sister, Kanan. And another little guest..."

"He's getting a little impatient, I think," Gojyo said, just a moment before an angry "KYU!" sounded and Jiipu stuck his head out of the bag. "Kyuu?"

Kanan's eyes widened. Sanzo frowned. Goku ... looked dumbstruck. 

Goku was the first to charge over. Carefully, he opened the bag further and lifted the dragon out. "Oh my... he's so _cute_! Hakkai, _what _is he?"

"A dragon," Hakkai and Sanzo replied at the same time. Sanzo glanced sharply at Hakkai, who smiled in reply. "He doesn't turn into a jeep. Not that I know of," Hakkai said softly. 

"Damnit.. this isn't even funny."

"It's not a joke."

"Kyuu~!" Jiipu tugged himself out of Goku's grasp and flapped over to Hakkai, settling comfortably on his shoulder with a little sigh. 

"He _flies_," Goku said, amazed. 

"Yeah, he does. Flew all the way round my freaking apartment _and_ ate the peanuts," Gojyo muttered. 

"He's beautiful," Kanan said. "What's he called? I assume it's a he?"

"It's a he," Hakkai replied. "I named him Jiipu."

"Not funny," Sanzo growled under his breath.

"No. But then again, who would _expect_ to find a real dragon in this world?" Hakkai told him. "It's a miracle in itself."

"And the dreams are real?" Sanzo asked, his voice brittle with more than a little anger.

"I... I don't know. We could take it as a sign... or we could just take it as what it is. A dragon. That I found on my doorstep yesterday evening."

"Kyuu.." abruptly, Jiipu left Hakkai's shoulder to hover in front of Sanzo. Ruby red eyes met amethyst ones.

Sanzo wasn't exactly sure what happened next, but he _thought_ that a voice, a rather deep, unfamiliar voice, sounded in the back of his head... _You don't remember, do you?_

And before he could make head or tail of that, some _other_, unused portion of his brain was answering : _Damn right I don't. And I don't want to._

"Kyuu..." Jiipu said, sounding a trifle sad.

"Oh, alright. You're real. You're a dragon. And pigs will start raining from the sky soon," Sanzo sighed. He held out an arm, and Jiipu alighted gently, twitching his long tail. "So, now that we've all seen this .. amazing new acquisition of yours, what about dinner?"

***

They returned to Sanzo's residence for dinner, since Goku, all enthusiastic about having a massive kitchen all to himself (more or less), had insisted on cooking.

"His cooking is alright..if you haven't known anything better," Sanzo muttered.

"Hey! I resent that!" Goku replied. "You said that it was good, the other day!"

"That was to stop you from flinging plates at my head," Sanzo said, unfazed, turning into the driveway. "And I don't think you prepared for a dragon."

"Well... nooo.... but what does he eat?"

"That what we're _all_ asking," Hakkai replied, having recounted the Discovery Of the Dragon on the way. 

"Perhaps he eats whatever we eat," Goku suggested. "Which is fine, cos I prepared extra."

"You _always_ prepare extra," Sanzo groaned. "And you always finish it _anyway_."

"Waste not--"

"Shut up..."

As it turned out, dinner was excellent. And _extremely_ filling. "Who taught you how to cook, Goku?" Hakkai asked, as they leaned back, stuffed to the gills and incapable of movement.

"I.. eh.. picked it up here and there," Goku replied, from where he was hanging over the sofa. "Figured that if I have to feed myself, I'd better learn how to cook. I mean, didn't we all? Sanzo cooks too."

"Idiot," Sanzo muttered from where he had taken refuge behind a newspaper. 

"Is that so? We should all sample Sanzo's marvellous cooking one day," Gojyo replied, popping the top off a can of beer. 

"If you're looking for -another- free meal, the answer's no," Sanzo snapped.

"Che.. stingy stingy.."

"Kyuuuuuuuu....." Jiipu heaved a long sigh, sprawled across Kanan's lap. 

"Jiipu enjoyed it, at least," Kanan said with a smile, running a hand through the dragon's mane.

"He _should_. He stole half my steak," Gojyo complained.

"That was just a mouthful," Hakkai replied. "Besides, you didn't look like you were going to finish it--"

"--since you were too busy hurling insults at me," Sanzo added. "Consider it the penalty for not eating up and shutting up."

"Bah. Now I have to figure food stealing dragons into my equation," Gojyo glared sullenly at Jiipu, a glare which quickly turned into a wry grin. "Say. Anyone up for a game of poker?"

***

As the evening danced away amidst light and laughter, the shadows lengthened outside. Many things were afoot and aboard, and drawing closer; some good, some bad, and some above both. And while Hakkai won game after game of poker, the past stirred from it's long slumber. With the addition of the dragon, all the cards were in place, and events left incomplete could finally resume their race towards their ultimate conclusion.

But, saving Jiipu, none of them could ever realize how close their lives were to being changed forever. And, in this fashion, they allowed time to slip past them, patient and inexorable in its advance.

Time.

And Time Again. 

***

sf : I opted to go with Jiipu in this text since 'Hakuryuu' doesn't fit so well, and Jiipu is shorter and easier to spell.  
Muse : And sf is laaaazy.  
Sf : Meh. I won't argue with that, actually. 


	9. Ch 9 : Cataclysm

A/N : 

It's the first time in a long time that I'm drinking Hazelnut coffee. My application essays are complete and I'm therefore free to concentrate on studying... but as I told Reysolo a long time ago, there are more important things than exams.

So And Time Again finally gets an update. My thanks everyone who's been patiently waiting all this while. The problem is, I'm *still* not too sure where this thing is going ^^.

****

A warning in advance is prudent at this juncture. This is where the story, already slightly out of whack due to the appearance of Hakuryuu/Jiipu, is going to go even more out of whack to the appearance of even more strange objects. If you were enjoying this AU simply because of the setting and the characters leading a fairly normal life... my apologies in advance; normalcy just doesn't _happen_ to this lot.

And so we plunge on, the name of the plot, my Muse, and Hazelnut Coffee.

(Also, heartfelt apologies for an extremely rushed chapter. Time's not stopping for me either. I might do a revision sometime if I feel like it.)

Warnings : Divergence, violence, a little bit of fluff.

****

And Time Again  
Chapter 9 : Cataclysm

__

Some time later.

"Sannnnnzooooooo, you have to _heeelppppp meeeee_," Goku's wail came crashing out of the kitchen, followed shortly thereafter by the crashing of cutlery and glassware.

"I told you to _hold on, damnit!_"

"I HELD ON, damnit! Then I slipped!"

Sanzo groaned as he slammed the car door shut and came running into the house to find Goku standing sheepishly by a pile of what-used-to-be-plates, a few forks, a knife embedded in the kitchen counter, and the spoons clinging onto the magnets on the fridge door.

"I leave for _twenty minutes_, and you succeed in messing up the _entire kitchen_."

"I was trying to wash up," Goku sulked.

"Idiot," Sanzo sighed in exasperation, as Goku stepped over the disaster and headed for the sink.

Goku winced slightly as he stuck a cut under the tap, wondering just what had made him jump. He'd been balancing perfectly well until the glimpse -- or the imagined glimpse -- of a shadow across the window where no shadow should have been. Then he'd started, shock running through his veins, and his fingers had just... let go. 

__

Down will come utensils, glass plates and all...

He shook in his head in rueful self-annoyance and closed the faucet, watching the beads of red well up from the gash and winding down the sides of his finger.

"You'll need to bandage that," Sanzo said from directly behind him.

He jumped, for the second time that night. 

A box of band aid slammed down next to him, and there was the tinkle of glass as Sanzo set to work clearing the mess. 

"I'll take care of that," he volunteered, already embarrassed at having been the source of trouble. 

"You take care of yourself first. Preferably before you break anything else," Sanzo returned dryly. 

"I'm sorry," Goku replied, with an apologetic grin.

"You're an idiot," Sanzo replied patiently, reaching for the dustpan.

***

"Alrighty then, I'll see you in class tomorrow," Gojyo said, yawning and waving to Hakkai at the steps of his apartment. 

"Tomorrow's Sunday," Hakkai reminded him. "I never knew you attended classes on the weekend."

Gojyo blinked owlishly at him for a moment and opened his mouth to retort when Hakkai froze in the midst of stepping into his apartment his eyes wide. Dread clamped down on Gojyo's shoulders in a sudden grip. "Hakkai?"

Hakkai took a step back, and Gojyo saw the shape in the doorway then, and a glint of metal. In slow motion, he watched the shadowy figure lunge forward, then there was a blur of white and winged motion as Jiipu dived from Hakkai's shoulder to block the blow.

A curse, a 'kyuu' and a spray of blood. And a clang as the knife clattered to the floor. 

Gojyo was up the stairs in a moment, as Hakkai tackled the stranger, catching him with a swift knee to the groin and a fist to the side of the head.

__

Who would have thought that the bookish library dude knew how to fight? Gojyo thought inanely. He, on the other hand, had spent a rather unglorious career all the way through junior high and high school picking fights...

There was another one, coming at Hakkai through the doorway of the apartment, and Gojyo tripped him up in mid step, before gifting him with a punch that sent him flying back through the doorway to crash into a random pile of books. Hakkai, in the meantime, sent the first one crashing down the stairs. 

"Who the hell are they?" Gojyo demanded.

"I don't know!" Hakkai replied.

The one at the bottom of the steps scrambled to his feet. As Gojyo turned to follow, he caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The one he had sent careening into the apartment dived for the window.

"Don't run, damnit!" Gojyo rushed over, in time to see the stranger dive straight out and vanish into the darkness. He caught sight of a rope and a grappling hook before it too disappeared from view. 

Before the words 'What the hell?' even reached the tip of his tongue, there was the sound of footsteps and pursuit. Remembering the first assailant, Gojyo dashed back out, in time to see Hakkai charging after him. 

"Hakkai! Watch out!" 

Hakkai paused as Gojyo said that, and a throwing knife streaked a hair's span past his nose to hit the wall. "He's getting away!" Hakkai yelled. 

"Yeah, and he probably has backup, you fool! Let him go!" Gojyo returned.

Hakkai glanced towards him and back towards the darkened streets where their quarry had long vanished into the shadows. "But..." 

The ringing of Hakkai's phone shrilled through the night.

"I'll get it," Hakkai, turning back, even as Gojyo swore at the 'inconsiderate idiots who call at the worst of times'. "Please.. see if Jiipu's okay..."

Reminded of the plight of the dragon who'd probably saved his best friend's life, Gojyo hurried to where Jiipu had collapsed in a white heap of fur. Blood was leaking from one wing where the blade had sliced through membranes, the redness soaking through white fur. He raised his head with a pitiful cry as Gojyo neared. 

In the apartment, Hakkai hurried towards the phone, grabbing the headset. "Hello?"

"Hakkai! Get Gojyo and get here now..."

Hakkai felt his heart stop. It was Goku, and he sounded terrified.

***

They were seated in the kitchen, finally restored to its original state of neatness, when Goku caught movement out of the corner of his eye.

"Sanzo--"

His next words were lost as the house's perimeter alarm triggered. Sanzo was on his feet in an instant, the chair clattering backwards to the floor. "Stay here. I'll go and check."

"I saw--"

But Sanzo was gone.

Goku chewed his lip, glancing at the window. Perhaps he _hadn't_ imagined that flicker the first time. _Sanzo... hurry... _

The alarm went silent, and he breathed a quiet sigh of relief. So it hadn't been anything after all. Perhaps just a random error or some animal or--

The window shattered inwards.

Goku leapt back in surprise as a figure came through. Whoever, whatever he was -- if it were even a he -- was clothed entirely in black and hooded, offering no clue whatsoever to his identity.

"Who are you?" Goku yelled, panic creeping up on him.

"_Shi-ne_," the figure breathed, an alien word he didn't understand, and attacked.

Goku evaded again as the knife came down, stabbing hard into the woodwork of the table. Glancing frantically about, trying to ignore his brain's cries of _'This guy's trying to kill me!'_, he searched for a weapon.. any weapon...

His hands closed around the hilt of a knife and he struck back, only to hit thin air. Something hit him in the gut and he stumbled backwards, banging an elbow painfully against a ledge. "SANZO!" he yelled.

There was no reply, no sound of running feet, no one rushing to his assistance. 

__

Oh no.. what if he's in trouble too?

Panic gave him new strength and he surged forward. The knife came down and he parried with his own, and there was a chime as both blades intersected at an angle and went flying off. He got a punch in, a rather ineffective one that stung his knuckles, but the next kick actually sent the attacker reeling for a moment. He stepped forward again, clenching his fists.

He heard it then, an odd sound that sounded somewhat like a crack and somewhat like an explosion. For a moment, he couldn't quite place it... it wasn't, by far, something that one heard everyday. Yet it was hauntingly familiar...

Hours of computer games came rushing back to him all of a sudden, and panic turned to ice-cold terror in his gut. _That's.. that's a gun shot.._

Ignoring the attacker, ignoring everything but the sudden fear for Sanzo's life, he dashed out of the kitchen and towards the front door.

He stepped into the living room to find a scene of complete chaos. The windows were smashed, the furniture was riddled..

"GET DOWN, IDIOT!"

"Sanzo?"

A shape barreled into him, sending him sprawling to the floor behind the sofa as bullets racked the corridor where he'd emerged from. There was a sudden grunt of pain, and he realized that the attacker who'd been following him had been hit. 

"They're not very smart, are they?" Sanzo growled, releasing him.

"San--"

"_Stay down_," Sanzo ordered. "And watch the back."

"What's happening?" Goku demanded, the world still wobbling from his sudden impact with the ground. Sanzo didn't reply, but Goku heard him take a deep breath. "What are you--"

Sanzo ducked out of cover, and that was when Goku saw that he was holding a pistol. The gun barked once, twice, and Sanzo dived for refuge behind a cabinet, and Goku was thinking _Oh my god, he has a 9mm and he's shooting.. he's killing people..._

He caught sight of more movement from the corridor. 

"Sanzo! From the kitchen!"

Sanzo spun, and there were two shots. 

Goku breathed a quiet sigh of relief as the figure fell.

He gradually became aware of the silence, the sudden stillness, the sudden lack of movement or life in the house. "Sanzo? Do you think they're gone?" he asked, his voice a low whisper. 

"Yeah... think I got all of them." There was a strain in Sanzo's voice that made Goku glance over in worry. The blond was leaning against the cabinet, his head back and his eyes shut, clutching at his shoulder one with hand. 

"Are you okay?" 

"I'll be fine." He opened his eyes, allowing his hand to fall away. Goku started at the sight of the blood seeping through his shirt. Even as he opened his mouth, Sanzo peered around the edge of the cabinet, clutching his gun. "Stay here. And this time, I mean _stay here. _I'm going to investigate," he hissed at Goku.

"I believe there's no need for that," a new voice, obviously feminine, addressed them from behind. Sanzo spun around, his fingers tightening around the gun grip. Goku turned equally fast, and his jaw dropped open.

***

"They'd better have a damn good reason for this," Gojyo snarled as they climbed out of the cab they'd hurried flagged down. 

"Goku was a little incoherent, but it sounded bad," Hakkai replied in a low voice. Jiipu was in a basket, stuffed full of aspirin. They'd washed the wing and tried for a makeshift bandage, but it was beyond their capabilities to patch the tattered wing membranes together properly.

"How bad can it get? Someone just tried to knife you in your own damn apartment! We should be making a police report, not running around! Thank goodness your sis is out of the line of fire..." He wrenched the front door open. "You guys--- oh."

"Gojyo!" Goku rushed over, evading piece of shattered glass and wood splinters. "Hakkai! You're safe, thank goodness..."

"What... what happened here?" Hakkai asked, shock paling his face.

"Ah. You're here," Sanzo greeted them, his tone totally flat and void of any emotion. "Goku went on a rampage. I need help in clearing up the mess."

Goku spun angrily. "How can you joke at a time like this?"

"Hush, Goku," Hakkai laid a hand on his shoulder. "He's in shock."

"So true. Come in, all of you," an unfamiliar voice called from the dining room. Hakkai stepped through the doorway and paused in shock for the second time. There, standing in a pool of light that stemmed from nowhere, was a women dressed in the most outrageous outfit he'd ever seen. It seemed to involve a lot of white silk and bangles.

Brushing a lock of black hair out of her eyes, Kanzeon Bosatsu smiled at him. "Oh, don't look so surprised, both of you."

***  
TBC  
***

A/N :

Alright, I _really_ wanted that out of the way. As I said before : I'm terribly sorry to all those people who wanted more the same, but I do have a plot in mind, and I need certain.. unpleasant events to happen. Things will be explained and fixed in the next few chapters to come, and we'll get on with happier stuff, I promise. And, unless my ATA plot bunny decides to wander down Violence lane again, there shouldn't be any more cases of wanton destruction.

And as I said, their lives will never be the same again.


	10. Ch 10 : Turn a circle

A short interlude before the main course, wherein I'll be taking questions from the reviewers...

__

First up, regarding the introduction of other characters :  
Well, your guess is as good as mine! I've been turning over the idea of introducing the Kougaiji-tachi since the beginning of the fic, and I'd say that there is a good chance of them making an appearance soon. The Homura-tachi, on the otherhand, was something I failed to consider until fool-san brought up it in a chapter 9 review. It would be a safe bet to say that : No, the Homura-tachi will not appear soon, although whether that will change by the end of the story is all up to my rather fickle plot bunny. Seeing that I have about as much clue as to the identity of the enemy as the Sanzo-tachi, however, anything's possible. (Edit : However, one must factor in the fact that, as a rabid Sanzo-fan, I just _don't_ enjoy writing the Kougaiji-tachi, let alone the Homura-tachi.)

__

Regarding aspirin for dragons :  
To quote Gojyo : 'Dragon anatomy isn't my speciality' ^^;; Aspirin, however, is proven to be safe for dogs, and having fed my own corgi aspirin on no fewer than 2 occasions in the past with positive results, I am reasonably sure that it would work on small white magical dragons that consume human food as a matter of course. ^^

__

Regarding chapter length :  
While one realizes that this is not an actual question, I feel that some defence on behalf of all fanfic authors is pertinent here : Writing is *exceedingly* time consuming. As a writer of moderate speed, I clock approximately 1,000 words per hour on a good day, a rate that declines rapidly after the first hour. I endeavour to present chapters of at least 2,000 words or 2,500 words in length; and such diligence sadly requires either 2 hours of writing on separate days, or 4 hours on a single day. (Of course, I'm fully aware of certain authors who churn out an incredible amount of ... verbal garbage ... in a far shorter time. I am not so prolific.)

__

Regarding the long delay for chapter 9 :  
I believe I've talked about that in sufficient detail in the last chapter. Suffice to say that, apart from distractions by other fics and Real Life, the extreme uncertainty of the plot in ATA and the constant revisions to it imply that further such delays may crop up in the future until a concrete direction is established. In the meantime, my apologies, and may I recommend that you entertain yourself with my other fics while waiting?

__

Regarding the equally long delay for chapter 10 :  
One does apologize. _And Time Again_, of all my fictions, is _notoriously_ hard to write, with no set long term plot, and even the _short_ term plot shifting from moment to moment. Worse, it looks set to become an action fic, which I've begun to abhore, and which slows down writing even more. Amongst other things, I _do_, like the rest of the world, actually have a life (which, until recently, was extremely demanding.) In the meantime, I ask for your patience and forbearance. (And after pestering me so much, if you don't give me a review, I swear that chapter 11 will take even longer! *evil glare*)

****

And Time Again

Chapter 10 : Turn a circle  
Another chapter powered by Hazelnut Coffee

Warning : Major spoilers for Volume #9 of the manga, involving Nii.  
An entirely original postulation about events at the end of the series.  
Not proof-read. Please excuse any errors.

They salvaged seats -- five chairs, none in perfect condition -- and gathered around the bullet perforated table. Sanzo took the head of the table, while the others aligned themselves along the side, while Kanzeon took the tail. 

"Nice place you have here, Sanzo. Vaguely reminiscent of Chou'An, don't you think?" she posed the question with an air of dry amusement.

Sanzo answered with silence.

"Perhaps... we should start with a few introductions," Hakkai said quietly.

"Introductions bore me. Must you guys go through this in every incarnation?"

"Riddles annoy me," Sanzo said softly, but a dangerous undertone rang clear. 

"They always did... dear nephew."

He stiffened. Amethyst eyes glanced up to meet amused lilac ones. "I don't," he ground out, "know what the _hell _you're talking about."

"Oh very well. Do it the boring way." Kanzeon drew herself up in a jangle of bracelets. Several trumpets popped out of thin air and started blaring a fanfare, to the accompaniment of suitable cymbal crashes and dancing lights. "I--" and this was said with the special emphasis of one who is on top of the world and knows it; the equivalent of the royal 'We', but for one who believes that there is no 'We', only 'I'. 

"I... am Kanzeon Bosatsu. Goddess, or God--" this with a wink that could only be described as suggestive, "--of Mercy, Queen of the Western Sea, the first of the five Bodhisattvas of Heaven and uber-seme of the series." She burst out in laughter as everyone fell off their chairs.

When order as restored, Hakkai ventured another question. "Pardon my asking, but some.. identification... proof..." 

"Always skeptical, Marshal. But know this : There is nothing that I cannot do!" And with a suitable flourish by the trumpets, she disappeared in a burst of light, to reappear behind Sanzo's chair. She caught his injured shoulder as he turned, eliciting a cry of "Bitch, watch ---"

"Watch what, Konzen?" Kanzeon released him, to reveal unbroken skin beneath the ragged hole in shirt. There was no trace of the wound -- no scab, no scar, nothing at all to signify that a bullet had passed through in recent memory.

"There you go." She ruffled Sanzo's hair as the others gaped, and strode across the room to reclaim her seat. Propping her elbows against the tabletop, she studied them over interlaced fingers, all amusement gone from her face. The trumpets faded with a despondent blat. 

"And now... to business. Time is short. Doubtless, you have questions. I'm not going to answer them."

"What the..." Gojyo spluttered. "You drag us all here just to fool around? Do you think that we're on vacation or something?"

"In a way, you are," Kanzeon replied enigmatically.

"So what _are_ you going to tell us?" Sanzo asked, fighting back the oddest urge to tack an 'old hag' onto the end of the sentence. Hag, definitely. Old? Well, depending on how you defined it...

"I'm going to tell you a story. A story of four people on a mission... that took place over a thousand years ago. Better yet... I'll show you what happened." She traced a vague circle in the air, and the room vanished before their eyes.

__

Genjo Sanzo, we order you to take your three companions -- Goku, Hakkai, Gojyo -- and journey to the western city of Tenjiku. To restore the sanity of the youkai, to bring peace back to Togenkyo... you must stop the resurrection of Gyuumao.

Sanzo's eyes snapped open.

Darkness welcomed him, so deep and dark that it seemed as if he'd never opened his eyes at all. _Where am I?_ And, rather hesistantly, _where are the others? _Nausea rolled over him, nausea and disorientation, and he shut his eyes against it, biting his lip to hold back the urge to retch. The last he'd remembered, they had been rooming at the local inn, as usual...

The wave passed, and he became increasingly aware of the lurking sense of _youryoku _that signalled the presence of youkai. They were close, distressingly so, possibly even in the same room---

"Awake? Genjo Sanzo."

The voice was not one he recognized. Instinct bade him sit up -- but the attempt aborted by restaints biting into his wrists and ankles. Another around his neck prevented him from lifting his head.

__

This is not funny at all...

"It was so easy, you know." The youkai stepped closer -- he could feel its presence; its voice grated on his nerves. He moved a wrist, and found the unyielding edge of a metal cuff, anchoring him to a steel table at his back. _Perfect. Just... perfect._

"All it needed was an inn with enough rooms that you could room separately... a rather silly, selfish act on your part, really, with no concern for the safety offered by numbers. A little sleeping powder, a locked door, and the simple act of teleportation was all it took." A claw ran across his cheek, causing his skin to crawl.

"Kougaiji's minion," Sanzo replied, a statement more than a question.

"Empress Gyokumen's, actually. And therefore, rather more capable." A hand came down on his shoulder where the sutra should have been, and he felt a rising sense of panic. _They have it. I was... unforgivably careless..._

"Who are you?"

"Who I am... is of no consequence. The Empress wishes to see you. Personally... I wish you luck. I don't think we'll meet again." There was a whisper of movement behind him, and the presence faded.

He waited, seething at his own helplessness and riding out the waves of nausea that hinted at a powerful drug still burning through his veins. Trying desperately to formulate a plan. If the Empress wanted to see him, then they'd have to release him. With his hands free, for no matter how short a period of time, he'd have that much of a chance--

--the lights flooded on, all at once, blinding him. "Gyokumen-sama," a voice said from where he guessed the door to be, "may I present.. Genjo Sanzo."

That particular hope died as footsteps sounded across the floor. "Well. We meet at last," a feminine voice said from behind, and there was no mistaking the smug undertone. "The great Genjo Sanzo, the emissary of the gods, sent to waylay all our plans. I must say... I'm not impressed."

"I must say that I'm not impressed either," Sanzo said flatly, as the Empress loomed into view. "Old hag."

That earned him a slap across the face, with just enough force to make his ears ring. "Is that all you can do?" he plowed on, "Hiding behind your minions then moving in when the target's been neutralized? Cowardly bitch."

"Such an insolent boy," Gyokumen purred.

"He's always been that way. Haven't you.. Kouryuu?" a new voice sounded. 

He craned his neck as far as he could, homing in on that voice from the past, half familiar and half remembered. And entirely unwelcomed. _Gods, it can't be.. it can't be... _

It wasn't. At least, he tried to tell himself it wasn't. The hair was shorter. The dress was different. And then there was that bunny doll...

But the smirk was the same. The eyes were the same. The damn _spectacles_ were the same. 

__

Ukoku Sanzo in the employ of Empress Gyokumen?

The mind had to balk at that. It threw several things in his life out of whack, things that he had unknowingly adopted as the unquestioned order of the universe -- that Sanzos served the gods. That, no matter what a pain in the ass it was, you took their orders and carried them out, because that was what his master would have done, and it had never occured to him to do otherwise. Like the hunt for Cho Gonou. Like the whole journey West. The reason why he had passed through fire and destruction in an effort to reach Tenjiku, only to end up there at the bitter end on the brink of absolute failure...

__

Ukoku Sanzo in the employ of Empress Gyokumen.

"Nii Jieni, actually," the man said, lighting a cigarette. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"What--"

"--Am I doing here?" Nii glanced at the ceiling. "Call it interest. I'm not.. strictly speaking, a Sanzo any longer. I gave that to my disciple a long time ago." 

"You gave him a name. A palace and a ton of stuff that you didn't want. You didn't give him the sutra. And that, nothing else, is what makes a Sanzo."

"So its perfectly acceptable for a Sanzo to do as he likes, so long as the sutra is not put at risk," Nii replied smoothly. "And this hardly constitutes a risk."

Logic failed him, for some reason, and he couldn't find the words to retaliate. His own master had told him : _There is no criteria for choosing a Sanzo_. The world tilted, shifted out of perspective, and he could have summoned any number of responses, but they would have been empty excuses, stupid, stupid assumptions about his entire role, about his entire _life_. How could one argue about orders from the gods with one who didn't care about them at all? 

"This is boring," Gyokumen commented. "We are wasting time."

"As you say, Empress," Nii agreed. He glanced down. "You're invited to a special viewing of Gyuumao's awakening, Kouryuu. We'll see you tomorrow, at this time... in this place." The last was said with no little irony. Sanzo ground his teeth, and turned away.

They left him then, killing the lights as they went. Leaving the darkness to cave in, despair hard on its heels. The crashing sense of having utterly... completely... screwed up. Far beyond redemption. It was evident that his companions weren't here. Probably stuck where they'd been, near the borders of Tenjiku. Tantalizingly out of reach. And loathe as he was to admit it, he needed them now, since it was evident that he wasn't about to get out of this mess himself. 

__

But is it a mess? an insidious voice asked. _Perhaps this was the way it was meant to be. If the gods truly cared, if they truly wanted to stop Gyuumao, they would have sent someone like Nataku Taishi to handle the whole ... mess.._

But they didn't. They sent a human with all of three companions and no real hope of success. It's amazing that we all got this far...

***

Jiipu sped along the road, Hakkai at its helm. Goku was fretting, fidgetting in the backseat. "We're have to go faster," he said, patently distressed over the abduction of their leader. 

"We're never going to reach Tenjiku in time," Gojyo said, shaking his head. "Not at the rate we're going."

"I don't intend to drive all the way there," Hakkai replied.

"Then what do you expect to do? Fly?"

"Capture a youkai. The powerful ones can teleport in groups."

"Are you crazy?" 

"It's our only hope," Hakkai frowned. "Crazy as it may sound."

"But it's not like they'll dispatch any other youkai, now that they have what they want," Gojyo pointed out. 

"They will, if they hope to slow us down." The landscape raced past outside, a barren wasteland of scattered rock and sand. Far in the distance, they could almost see the mountains that were rumored to hide Kougaiji's fortress. _A crater in the midst of the mountains, shadowed by great claws of rock..._

"You've really screwed up, haven't you?" a voice called out from directly in front of them. Hakkai saw a flash of light and jammed on the brakes. Jiipu came to a halt with a screech and a cloud of dust. 

"Bosatsu-sama?" Hakkai called out.

"The very one." Kanzeon stepped forward. Jiroushin was consciously absent. "Letting your guard down this close to Tenjiku... quite an unforgivable mistake, don't you think?"

"We were tired--" Goku started, but Hakkai cut him off as he stood. "Bosatsu-sama, we need assistance..."

She shook her head. "We aren't supposed to intervene, you know."

"Why not?! You issued the orders, and now the mission is in jeopardy..."

"Through your own silly faults..."

"Oh come on," Gojyo said. "You wouldn't be here if it wasn't to give us a helping hand. Right?"

She smiled at that. "Well, _entirely _unofficially... I suppose I could give you a lift. The rest will be up to you."

"Is Sanzo okay?" Goku asked.

"So far," she replied. "Of course, the clock _is_ moving..."

Her voice faded as the world dissolved around them with a dizzying sensation of rapid motion. Then there was solid ground beneath Jiipu's wheels again. Thunder sounded overhead, chasing a bright trail of lightning against an overcast sky. It was dark enough that the sun was invisible, and the world was cloaked in shades of gray and black.

Ahead of them loomed a tower, whose upper reaches touched the clouds. Great outcrops of rock reached towards it from the edges of the crater they were in. Talons of a closing hand, save that no hand had that many fingers.

Forbidding, foreboding, and utterly foreign... It could only be Kougaiji's fortress.

"Let me state for the record that I don't like this at all," Gojyo whispered, as if to speak any louder would bring the wrath of the tower down on them.

"Neither do I," Goku seconded.

"Good luck," Kanzeon said from somewhere behind them. "Your objective lies beyond these walls. I hope that you're strong enough to achieve it."

"Thank you," Hakkai said, but she was gone.

***  
To be Continued.  
***

Let me state for the record that this chapter took no fewer than 4 hours to write. One originally wanted it to be longer (all the way to the conclusion of the flashback, actually), but one equally wanted to release the chapter and go and do something else. 

The good news is, my university of choice accepted me, which means that I'll be spending time writing fanfictions rather than silly application essays. Pass the Hazelnut coffee!


	11. Ch 11 : Memory

To chris and anyone else confused by events in the last chapter re Sanzo's abduction :  
It's stated by the youkai, but I'll recap in more straightforward manner here.  
The Sanzo-ikkou arrived at an inn and took separate rooms. The youkai teleported into the region, released an anaesthetic into the air (a la Yaone in Episode #5 of the anime), ensuring that the Sanzo-tachi remained asleep. The rest, you might say, was a matter of picking up the priest and teleporting back to the castle.

sierra -- *shuffles feet and looks guilty*. I'm sorry.

Ami -- As true as it gets ^^.

The rest -- Thanks to the insistence of certain parties, I've thrown all my other fics to one side to work on this chapter. Enjoy ^_^.

Little side note : All of my fictions will henceforth be published on sf works, a personal site.   
Check it out at http://division-stormwind.org/sf/works/

*murmurs* If I had a review for everyone whose favorites list I'm on...

****

Events here are entirely non-canon. Rest assured ^_^.  
Excepting the spoilers about Nii and Kougaiji, of course.

****

And Time Again  
Chapter 11 : Memory

Warnings : Spoilers for Volume #8 of the manga, involving Kougaiji. Minor Sanzo-abuse.

Sanzo knew that he stood no chance when they dispatched two heavyset youkai to fetch him. But, stubborn as he was, he fought back anyway. They released all the restraints at once, and Sanzo took the opportunity to send a balled up fist into the throat of the nearer youkai. As the brute went down, gagging, he swung a foot at the second, only to have it intercepted in midflight by an unseen third party. 

With a curse, he lost his balance and fell. A hand from behind shoved his head into the edge of the table top.

When he returned to the land of the conscious, he found himself staring at the floor, his hands chained behind his back. A trickle of blood wound its way down from his forehead. The newcomer, the one he hadn't reckoned with, grabbed his hair, yanking his head up. 

Sanzo's eyes widened with surprise. It was Kougaiji, yet _not_ Kougaiji. The fiery youkai prince he'd known was never possessed of such a completely... blank stare. There was nothing behind the violet eyes -- as if his mind and his very soul were elsewhere.

"Kougaiji..." he hissed, hating the grating weakness in his voice.

There was no response to that, no flicker of recognition or acknowledgement. He was hauled brusquely to his feet. 

"Move," Kougaiji ordered, and the tingle of claws pressing into the back of his neck brooked no argument.

Argument would have been futile anyway, Sanzo reflected. He had learnt from experience never to count on anyone other than himself, but it would have been nice to deal with the _old_ Kougaiji -- with whom he could bargain, reason, perhaps even persuade to delay the inevitable. But his luck was so absolutely rotten at the moment...

He didn't need to feign illness. The nasty knock he had taken made his knees drop out from underneath him even before he reached the door, and he hit the floor with a curse. There was a hasty consultation, and one of the youkai made the mistake of stepping within range...

Sanzo surged to his feet, head-butting the unfortunate fool. He caught the second one beside him with a kick, and _nearly_ got Kougaiji, when the first youkai grabbed him from behind, got an arm around his neck, and hoisted him off his feet.

He choked in that stranglehold, gasping for a breath that wouldn't come. 

"None of that," Kougaiji said, stepping up. "Or we may be forced to take more extreme measures."

He couldn't summon the strength to kick the youkai. "Better dead... than... spectator... to your .. fucked up .. schemes," he gasped.

"You won't die," Kougaiji promised him. The tone, dead and dry yet frighteningly intelligent, drove a chill into him that the words failed to elicit. The arm around his neck loosened, just enough for him to draw a painful breath. 

Not that he wanted to die, just yet. As long as he was still alive, he still had a fighting chance of stopping this. Perhaps all it would take was Nii's death. Or Gyokumen. Perhaps they would remove his manacles, return his gun, and give him the go ahead to shoot. He wished.

The youkai carried him the rest of the way, a damn humiliating way of getting to their destination, and deposited him in a heap on the floor of a viewing gallery. Sanzo regained his feet even as he heard approaching footsteps.

"Oh dear," Gyokumen commented, as she drew near. "You're bleeding. Did Kougaiji give you any trouble?"

Sanzo glanced away, not in the mood for banter. He needed his hands free. Gyokumen was in range, and he could take her down before they killed them, but he certainly couldn't kill Gyokumen _and_ fend off the two guards flanking him with his feet alone. 

"Preparations are almost complete," Nii called from somewhere nearby. "Give us a few more minutes before we begin."

"You used to have a couple of subordinates," Sanzo commented to Kougaiji. "What happened to them?"

Kougaiji shrugged eloquently. "Gone."

"You got rid of them?"

"I had no further use of them."

So. That was the extent of the change in Kougaiji. _What caused it_, he wondered. Such a switch in personality could never have happened on its own.

"Preliminaries are complete, Empress," Nii said. "Shall we begin?"

"In your own time," Gyokumen replied, unusually generous. She turned to Sanzo with a smile. "Of course, this would not have been possible without your valued contributions, Genjo Sanzo."

He ground his teeth, and shot back a question. "You're Gyuumao's concubine, aren't you?"

"His wife!" she snapped. "His one and only rightful _wife!_"

"A concubine. I should have guessed. And here I thought that _he_ was in charge of it all along," Sanzo replied, glancing at Kougaiji. "But then again, he wouldn't need to hide behind some dead youkai." 

She raised a hand to strike him. Sanzo stood his ground and raised an eyebrow. "With a head wound, I might just fall over if you did that. You wouldn't want me to miss the show, would you?"

There was a soft chuckle. "Such a sharp tongue," Nii commented.

Gyokumen smiled unpleasantly. "There are ways of remedying that."

Before Sanzo could think up a suitable retort, there was the hiss of escaping steam. Spotlights came on, illuminating an imposing figure formerly hidden in the gloom.

It was tall enough that its head reached their viewing gallery, two storeys above the ground. Nothing could be seen behind the helmet and the metal encasing it, but Sanzo knew, with the dread certainty of nightmares, that this was Gyuumao.

"What did you need the sutras for?" he asked, watching the scene in morbid fascination. Lights had begun to blink on the casing, and the escaping steam -- no, the escaping _vapor _-- bespoke of temperatures far below melting point. They had frozen the demon in liquid nitrogen.

"A power source," Nii replied. "To summon the elemental power necessary to build a world... or to draw a soul out of the Void. The rest, as they say, is Chemistry."

__

A power source, Sanzo reflected. _That means... if I can find out where they stashed the sutras -- if I can detect the resonance of their power and stop them, the resurrection will never be complete._

Of course, there's nothing you can do at the moment, a mental thought said sarcastically.

He refused to think about that. If he did, it would lead him back down the torturous slope of depression, reminding him of his own helplessness to prevent his master's death, to prevent this ... to prevent any number of things. 

__

There must be a way, he told himself. _There has to be a way._

***

"There's... something entirely ominous about this," Gojyo said. "Like a presence... building within the walls."

"It must be starting," Goku replied. "Hakkai, what do we do?"

"We don't have time for pleasantries," Hakkai commented, his eyes narrowed. "I say we walk straight in. Are both of you up to it?"

"Always," came Gojyo's answer, as Goku nodded.

"We don't stop," Hakkai told them. "Once we get in, we kill everything in our path and find Sanzo, Gyuumao, and Kougaiji. Hopefully, they'll all be in the same place. Our objective... is not to kill all the youkai, but to stop Gyuumao's resurrection... at whatever cost."

"Kyuu?" Hakuryuu murmured into his ear.

"We'll need you to scout our way," Hakkai informed the little dragon. "No doubt the place is huge; no doubt we'll need aerial surveillance if we're to find the center of activity with any speed." He glanced around. "But remember : we _have_ to stick together."

"Cliché, Hakkai. I thought you could do better than that," Gojyo commented. _It's odd, hearing Hakkai issues orders. As if he were meant to. As if ... it's what he's always done._ A fleeting sense of familiarity...

"But it wouldn't be a cliché if it wasn't over used," Hakkai replied with a grim smile. "All clear, Goku?"

"As day," Goku replied seriously.

"Then I'll lead the way."

They broke and entered, Hakuryuu slamming through the great doors in Jeep form, reminiscent of the assault on Homura's castle. All three were out of their seats even before the jeep could reach a stop, slaughtering the ill prepared guards.

"Which way?" Gojyo yelled at Hakkai.

A dragon's high pitched whistle answered him instead, as Hakuryuu nodded towards the main corridor. With a flap of his wings, he sailed off, leaving the rest to run after him. Behind them, alarms shrilled, sending more youkai guards running.

Hakkai and Gojyo held off the newcomers as Goku took down the next set of doors, leaping at them and slamming Nyoibou against the wood like a battering ram. They splintered outwards, showing the youkai guards behin in a flurry of wooden fragments.

"Stand back!" Hakkai yelled, and a _ki_ blast snapped through the air and impacted, energy on flesh. Their opponents died before they knew what hit them.

The corridor branched from there, taking three separate routes. Hakkai paused, uncertain. "Goku... do you sense anything?"

"There's too much youryoku," Goku said, wrinkling his nose. "And it's all around us. I can't tell where its coming from."

"Shall we just take one passage and go?" Gojyo suggested. 

"It might prove disasterous," Hakkai replied, frowning. "But more guards will be here in a minute..."

"Then what do we do?"

"I--"

"Hakkai-san?"

All three spun at the new voice, weapons at the ready. A shadow from the third corridor moved into view.

"Yaone!" Hakkai said in surprise, allowing the _ki_ ball between his palms to vanish. 

"What are you doing here?" she asked. Behind, Dokugakuji stepped into view.

"What we've always set out to do," Hakkai replied. "Stop the resurrection of Gyuumao. Are you going to stand in our way?"

Yaone's eyes were troubled. "I..."

"We have no choice, Yaone," Dokugakuji said gently. Gojyo tightened his grasp around his shakujou. "I guess this is--"

"You misunderstand me," Dokugakuji told him. 

"What?"

"Our loyalty is to Kougaiji-sama," Yaone said faintly. "But he's under the control of Empress Gyokumen. It seems... that the only way to save him is to break her hold..."

"What happened to Kougaiji?" It was Goku who posed the question; Goku, whom, of all of them, had always harbored concern about their opponent.

"We don't know," Dokugakuji replied unhappily. "But it seems that he's been brainwashed."

"We've tried everything!" Yaone cried in distress. "But he won't even listen to us any more!"

"We no longer have time for explanations," Hakkai intervened, gently but firmly. "If you're not going to stop us, then help us. Do you know where Sanzo is?"

"Sanzo-san? Isn't he with you?"

"He was... captured. We have reason to believe that he's here. Don't you know?"

"It must have been the Empress' subordinates," Dokugakuji said. " I heard that they're starting the resurrection procedure soon, possibly even now. If Gyokumen is anywhere -- if Sanzo is anywhere -- it'll be where Gyuumao is."

"Can you lead us there?" Hakkai pressed.

Yaone sighed. It was Dokugakuji who answered. "On one condition -- help us to dispose of Gyokumen, and, if possible, Nii. We'll deal with Kougaiji."

"Our mission and our responsibility to Sanzo comes above all else, but I strongly suspect that, in the course of executing it, we'll have to do as you request," Hakkai nodded. 

"Then we have an agreement."

***

Their newly found guides led them through the bowels of the fortress. Whether it was the route that they took, a trap, or otherwise, they encountered no other youkai. 

Turns and corners and corridors later, Yaone came to a halt. She turned to Hakkai. "We're almost there. That door ahead -- opens directly into Gyokumen's throne room. I believe that they'll be on the viewing gallery, accessible via an elevator. They'll have the advantage of height, but we have the advantage of surprise. I... don't know what you intend to do, but the machinary that powers this resurrection experiment is largely located on the ground floor. I can't tell you more than this."

"It's a great help anyway," Gojyo replied. 

"Gyokumen... is she the one behind all of this?" Goku asked.

"Gyuumao's concubine, or so the rumors say," Dokugakuji replied bitterly. "Lirin's mother; Kougaiji's step mother. And yes, the driving force behind this madness."

"I take it that you don't approve," Hakkai noted.

"They needed a sacrifice for this resurrection. Gyuumao's blood kin."

"Not..." Hakkai faltered, horror locking his throat.

"Yes. Lirin," Dokugakuji looked away. "Kougajii... was..._is_... too useful for Gyokumen to dispose of so easily."

"But... her own daughter?" Goku looked horrified.

"She wants to rule the world," Yaone told him. "And there is no price that she will not pay."

***  
To be continued.  
***


	12. Ch 12 : Resurrection

jashuang -- I'm still deciding on whether or not to include the Kougaiji-tachi in the present. 

Everyone else, including various parties who have mailed me regarding ATA -- Many thanks for your kind comments. *pats fic bunny*. I will try to update more regularly. And if anyone is interested, I have a spare writer's block to give away...

****

Events here are entirely non-canon. 

****

And Time Again  
Chapter 12 : Resurrection

"Almost complete, Empress."

"At last," Gyokumen declared. "At last, my beloved Gyuumao will be revived, reinstated in his rightful place of lord of the world... and I, I, who masterminded his resurrection, will rule beside him for all eternity!"

Sanzo laughed. 

Gyokumen spun, glaring daggers at the priest, who cocked a sardonic eyebrow at her. "Nice speech, bitch, but a little premature..."

She grabbed him by the front of his robe. "Is that a threat, priest?"

He favored her with a humorless smile. "I would watch my back, if I were you."

At that, there was an explosion from the first storey. Gyokumen shoved Sanzo aside and spun, yelling, "What is the meaning of this?"

"Intruders!" a youkai guard yelled, moments before his head went flying.

"Kougaiji! Deal with them!" Gyokumen hissed. There was a flash of red hair as Kougaiji nodded curtly and sprung towards the elevator. The youkai guards son the platform followed. "And you... are dead," she said, advancing on Sanzo.

Not for the first time, he wondered what kind of powers she had. In his current state, however, he wasn't about to hang around and find out. He sprang away as Gyokumen lashed out, her claws clearing his throat by a hair's breadth. Sprang away and ran, ducking when he heard gunshots. _Nii. Nii has a gun_. It figured...

__

If I can get to the sutras in time ...

But there was the ominous build up of _youryoku _in the background, hinting at something big and nasty coming through. He ducked to avoid another bullet, tripped over a corpse -- _a corpse?_ he wondered -- and went sprawling. Several gunshots in the distance, and he gritted his teeth, anticipating the impact--

--when there was the flash of steel overhead, the screech of a bullet impacting on metal, and Dokugakuji was standing over him, a bullet lodged in his sword. The youkai pulled him to his feet, severing the chain between the handcuffs with a swipe of his blade. "Take this." Dokugakuji shoved a familiar revolver at him. 

"Thank you," Sanzo muttered, glancing at him. 

"Go. I'll cover you. I'm afraid... you're the only one who can stop this," Dokugakuji said.

"Take out Nii. He has a gun," Sanzo directed, and was gone in a flash.

*

"Hakkai! Up there!" Goku pointed. "That woman -- I think she's Gyokumen -- she's holding something."

Hakkai squinted upwards, noting Dokugakuji and Yaone converging on the Empress, Sanzo bolting for the elevator, and Gyokumen herself...

"It's a summoning crystal," he said. "She's probably going to summon a demon."

"I'll stop her!" Goku volunteered, kicking another youkai guard aside. 

"Watch out!" Gojyo yelled from somewhere behind. 

Goku leapt aside, as Kougaiji sprang out of seemingly nowhere, narrowly missing him. He spun with amazing speed, and would have swept Goku's feet out from underneath him, if Hakkai's _ki_ ball hadn't slammed into him, sending him flying. 

"I thought Yaone and Dokugakuji were supposed to take care of him!" Goku yelled.

"No time for that!" Gojyo's reply came back.

"Just knock him out or something!" Hakkai told him. "He's definitely out for our blood!"

"Alright..."

"Hakkai!" Gojyo called. Hakkai glanced at him, opened his mouth to ask what the matter was, then the massive wave of _youryoku_ slammed into him. 

__

Kami-sama...

It was like a fist to the gut; it momentarily robbed him of his air, and he doubled over, gagging. Unconsciously, his hand strayed towards his limiters. _Hunt, kill, rend, destroy..._

An arm clamped down on his own and Gojyo's fist caught him on the side of the head, knocking him back to rationality. Hakkai blinked at him.

"The Minus Wave," Gojyo said grimly. "And if there's any cause for it... it's that Gyuumao's been revived."

*

Yaone raced across the platform. The gunshots had stopped; either Nii had run out of bullets, or, worse, he was turning his attention to the resurrection procedure...

But either way, it gave her enough to clear the distance between herself and the Empress.

She could see the white neck just above the gown, could already envision her spear running through it, red blood on silver steel, could hear the scream of pain and terror...

Gyokumen hadn't seen her. She had drawn something out of her pocket and was regarding it.

__

Don't turn your back on your enemies. Or your subordinates, Yaone thought grimly. 

She put on an extra burst of speed, bringing the spear up for the killing blow. Then the world went crazy.

*

"Yaone!" Dokugakuji shouted out a warning, but she was too far to hear. He watched in horror as Gyokumen raised her hand, the summoning crystal expanded to form a globe...

Yaone couldn't see it, charging towards Gyokumen's back.

The demon lunged out of the void, a streak of solid fire. It crashed into the ground where Yaone was, but she had leapt out of the way, discarding several small bombs that did nothing to hurt the creature.

It surged through the ground, then broke through once more in a shower of metal and sparks, twisting to locate its quarry. Yaone dodged and once more the demon spun to seek her out. The distance between them narrowed.

Dokugakuji made to rush to his friend's assistance, but there was suddenly a wall of armed steel around him as Gyokumen's personal guard arrived. 

"Hakkai! Yaone's in trouble!" Goku yelled, as he narrowly evaded another blow from Kougaiji. 

"I have my hands full," Hakkai replied, trying to fend off the hordes of youkai who seemed to have arrived.

"Shit, she really is in trouble," Gojyo noted, looking up. The demon struck again and there was a splash of blood. "She can barely keep running from it..."

"She has a plan," Hakkai said calmly.

"What?" Goku said. "A plan? But she's just running..."

"Any moment..."

There was another crash as the demon slammed through the ground.

"Look, she's been running in tighter circles each time..."

"Allowing the demon to catch up," Gojyo shot back, as his blade went whirling through the air and came, covered with blood.

"And getting closer to Gyokumen," Hakkai pointed out.

Abruptly, Yaone ceased her flight. As the demon closed for the kill with breathtaking speed, she gathered her feet under her and leapt straight up into the air. 

"She's not going to make it!" Goku cried.

"She will make it," Hakkai said grimly. "But whether she'll survive it ..."

*

She wanted to stretch this moment into forever. Her left hand was clutched around the shaft of the spear, held close to her side, her right hand directed the point, and as she stared down the silver arrow head, it took the light from the fire and split it across the entire spectrum.

Death was beautiful, she reflected, yellow and red, and the roar of the creature behind her and the scream as Gyokumen realized ... too late ...

Steel bit into flesh. 

Then there were two screams, one from the dying women before her, clutching at the spear through her throat, and one from the dying creature behind her, falling as its summoner did. 

It was funny, though. How she'd waited for this moment, how she'd looked towards this day, constructed and reconstructed it, in waking and in dreams. How she'd longed for this day, for this opportunity, for this very occurrence...

And yet when it dawned, in a day she'd never dared to actually hope for... all she could feel was fatigue, a certain weariness, as if she'd been working all day. But there was a sense of welcome too, as if she'd finally looked up at the end of the long day, and saw the lights of home.

The creature behind her was still following, she realized, as her feet touched ground, and the shaft of the spear snapped, its point still embedded in the Empress' throat. And for a moment that stretched into eternity, the world around them turned the glowing red of sunset. And it was as if she'd turned the clock back to the beginning, back that fateful day where Kougaiji had first taken her into his employ.

And when the ruins of the demon came crashing down around them both, she saw him standing before her again, frowning in silent query.

__

I'll stay by your side forever, Kougaiji-sama...

*

"YAONE!" Dokugakuji screamed, tearing through the mob surrounding him. He rushed to the charred ground where the demon had fallen.

Nothing remained. Even bone had been seered into ash. Both Gyokumen and Yaone... had been cremated instantly.

"My, my, what a mess," Nii said from behind him, clicking his tongue in disapproval.

"Yaone..." Dokugakuji murmured, his hand closing around the hilt of his sword. He regained his feet in the same movement that sent his blade swinging towards Nii's throat.

It missed.

Dokugakuji blinked in surprise, then spun. The scientist was nowhere in sight.

"Damnit!"

"Behind you!" 

The warning reached him at the same moment that the blow did. A fist slammed into his jaw as he turned, sending him reeling backwards. Stars danced momentarily across his vision. Through his speckled vision, he saw a heavy set youkai of Gyokumen's personal guard advancing on him.

He brought the blade up as the other attacked. Steel rang on steel. For a brief moment, he thought that he'd actually countered the blow, then the force behind it sent the sword spinning out of his hand to clatter off in the distance.

He lunged towards it as the guard brought his sword down--

--and blood splashed across his vision. 

It took him several moments to realize that he wasn't dead. It took him several more and the corpse of his attacker thudding to the ground in front of him to realize that he was unharmed. 

__

And if I look up...

"Yo," Gojyo said. "Looks like our roles are reversed this time."

"So it seems," Dokugakuji said wryly, as Gojyo extended a hand to help him to his feet. "We're even now."

"You could say that."

"I hate to break up the reunion, but we have a problem coming through," Hakkai said from nearby. Both glanced quizzically at him.

"If you morons haven't noticed... the resurrection didn't stop while you were running around having fun," Sanzo growled. 

"Gyuumao," Hakkai said, nodding towards the massive iron shell in the background. The plates were beginning to part, and there was the sense of a dark, ominous presence stirring from within. "We were too late to stop them."

"We're not too late!" Dokugakuji said vehemently. "Nii Jieni is behind all of this. I'll take care of him, you guys--"

"Something bad's happening!" Goku said, bounding up.

"We know!" the rest chorused back at him.

"--you three. Take care of Gyuumao and keep the guards and Kougaiji off my back," Sanzo snapped.

"And what about you?" Gojyo asked.

Sanzo glanced towards the monster. Somewhere, somewhere at its base, almost obscured by the rolling waves of _youryoku_, he could sense the presence of a sutra. "There is a power source," he said softly. "We may be able to kill Gyuumao, but in order to ensure that this never happens again..."

..._the sutras must be destroyed forever._

"Look out!" Goku cried. There was a blur of motion to the side, then a flash as something collided heavily with Hakkai's energy barrier and fell back. Kougaiji had snuck up on them unaware. 

"I'll deal with him," Goku said, moving to the front. "I'll settle this between us once and for all."

"No," Dokugakuji retorted, pushing forward.

"But--" Goku began, then stopped as Hakkai laid a hand on his shoulder. The older man shook his head once. "Then we'll concentrate on Gyuumao," he amended.

"Thank you," Dokugakuji replied. 

"My, my. What a complicated battle plan," a voice rang out from overhead. All five spun around to behold Nii standing atop a high walkway. "I'm afraid that one of you alone is no match for Kougaiji. And all of you together are no match for Gyuumao." He smiled. "So what will you do?"

"We rid ourselves of the immediate annoyance," Hakkai replied. The ki blast that he'd been hiding behind his back snapped across the distance to smash into the walkway. But Nii was no longer there.

"I'm afraid that won't work," Nii said mockingly, appearing on another walkway behind them. Hakkai blinked, caught by surprise. 

"When... _how_ did he move that fast?" Gojyo demanded.

"I'll leave you with a new word," Nii replied. "Shikigami. A construct, if you will. Which can be made to resemble the original with uncanny accuracy. Isn't that so, my Empress?" 

"A useful device," Empress Gyokumen agreed, appearing at the railing. She smiled down at their shocked expressions. 

"I thought... Yaone..." Goku stammered.

"What Yaone killed... was just a decoy," Hakkai explained. "Which, in retrospect, was why it was so easy to ambush and take down..."

"So, I'll just leave all of you to get acquainted with Gyuumao," Gyokumen smirked. "I trust that you won't need any introductions." She turned, nodding at Nii. "We leave."

***  
TBC  
***

Love it? Hate it? Tired of the extended flashback scene? Want more (overdone) Sanzo-ikkou in high school/college scenes? Feedback would be nice...


	13. Ch 13 : Infinitude

Warning : Rated PG-13 for excessive violence. Character death ahead. 

We've already diverged in a major way from the canonical events in the latest Saiyuki RELOAD releases. Now, to get this flashback over and done with...

Disclaimer : In this chapter, Kougaiji's thought processes and actions are entirely my own.

**

And Time Again  
Chapter 13 : Infinitude  


**_Here... is the end of all things. _

Step.  
And step again.  
And a halt.

"Out of the way."

Dokugakuji cast a slight smile at his liegelord's words. "I'm afraid that we have some things to discuss, Kou."

"There is nothing to discuss," Kougaiji hissed. "The enemy is at hand. Gyuumao is revived. There is nothing left and no time to discuss."

"On the contrary, if there ever was time or necessity for discussion, that time is now. I'm not sure what they put into your head, but they seem to have scrambled it."

"Insult me, cur, and you die."

"What is it you fight for, Kougaiji?"

There was no response, but Kougaiji paused. Dokugakuji thought -- might have imagined -- a slight flicker in his eyes.

"It is not your concern."

"Gyuumao's revived, you say. You played an instrumental role in it. You've fulfilled your bargain with Gyokumen Koushuu. Don't you think you're due a reward?"

"What _are_ you babbling about?" Kougaiji snapped.

A ghost of a sigh passed Dokugakuji's lips, and a little hope withered in his heart. "Your _mother_, Kou. Wasn't that the part of the deal? That she'd be revived if you helped with the resurrection?"

"You're wasting my time. This topic--"

"--Do you really think that Gyokumen's going to revive your mother any time soon? Or will she be too busy taking over the world?!"

"--is irrelevant."

"_What is it you fight for_?"

Traces of a sneer passed Kougaiji's features. "Not for the past. Not for the remnant of another trapped in stone. Not when the very world is at hand."

"Listen to yourself! What garbage did they put in your head?"

"Not something that you can ever understand. _Once_ the resurrection is complete, _once_ the world is under my hand, _once_ there is no room for abnormality... and yes, I mean even that witch who fancies herself Empress, _then_ there is time for the other things."

"The _other_ things."

"Although I could spare time for subordinates who seem to have a crisis of loyalty."

"What do you want the world for?! It's worth nothing to you!"

"Nothing? When even the enemy traipses into my fortress? When that bitch holds some semblance of authority? When even I have no power to stop traitors and to free my mother?" there was a glint in his eye.

"A perfect world. Is that what you want? Sounds awfully familiar, doesn't it? I seem to recall some god or other who tried to do the same... and failed miserably."

"He tried to build a new world," Kougaiji scoffed. "I have no such delusions. I simply seek to carve my empire upon the surface of this one."

"And you say that you have no delusions," Dokugakuji gave him a withering look.

"Someone like you would never understand." Kougaiji drew himself up. "Someone who never had a birth right. Someone who never saw their empire and their father's empire crumble to dust. We are _due_, we, the race of youkai, who laid claim across all of Tenjiku and Togenkyou five hundred years ago!"

"You're mad. You're stark, raving, crazy," Dokugakuji regarded him with a stare of open disbelief.

"It is not yours to question what I choose to do. Now will you aid me or thwart me? Choose!"

"I'm sorry," Dokugakuji lowered his eyes for a moment. When he looked back up, they were suspiciously bright. "But I only take orders from the Kougaiji whom I swore my loyalty to. The one who would never have forsaken that which was dear to him for the sake of power and an empire long since gone to dust. The one who would never have placed petty bickerings over his honor." _And the one who would rather die than degenerate into what you are now._

"Then it seems that we are at odds."

__

There is no way I can beat him, speed for speed, strength for strength, raced through Dokugakuji's mind, as he evaded the fireball that Kougaiji sent spinning in his direction. _I cannot engage him from long range. _He summoned his blade, caught the next blast, and deflected it. As Kougaiji's eyes spun to track the errant fireball, Dokugakuji took the opportunity to close to sword range.

__

Yet if I know anything about what's going on in Kougaiji's mind...

There was a chime as he countered Kougaiji's strike. 

__

...then the only way I can get him...

His own stroke missed as Kougaiji danced away. He fell back, and claws narrowly missed his throat.

__

...is to trap him.

As Kougaiji pulled back in preparation for the next attack, Dokugakuji feinted towards the other's right, deliberately leaving his own left flank exposed. 

__

And if he is the merciless killing machine that I think he's become...

And, as expected, Kougaiji seized the opening and struck. Demonic claws ripped into his side, sending the world a shade of blinding white. 

__

He will not hesistate where the old Kougaiji might have.

But when Kougaiji tried to pull back, he found a hand locked around his wrist, and Dokugakuji regarding him with a smile. 

__

Time is a wheel in constant motion

Always rolling us along

"I'm sorry."

__

Tell me who; wants to look back on their youth and wonder

Where those years have gone.

And with a single swift move, Dokugakuji rammed his blade between Kougaiji's ribs and through his heart. 

__

Omae ga donna michi wo ikou to ... ore-tachi wa tsuite iku. 

__

...Whatever road you take, we will follow. 

Then his own world faded to oblivion.

***

"They're both down!" Goku's shout caused his companions to glance in his direction.

Sanzo was the first to decipher his meaning. "_Idiots._"

"A waste," Hakkai murmured, as he obliterated another attacking youkai. A bullet whizzed past his ear, gunning down a wouldbe attacker.

"Shit happens," was Gojyo's masterful summation of their opinions.

"One less threat to deal with, at least," Sanzo said, sighting down the barrel and taking out another youkai. "But the _real_ shit is about to hit the fan."

"You mean Gyuumao?" Goku asked, retreating to where Sanzo and Hakkai were. 

"I think he's just woken up to a very unpleasant morning," Hakkai said with a wry smile.

"How long do you think before he catches on?" Gojyo demanded.

"Not very long at all, with our luck," came Hakkai's chipper reply. Hakuryuu squeaked his assent from his aerial viewpoint, and sent a fireball into the eyes of a charging guard. The youkai howled and stumbled, then Gojyo's blade put him out of his misery.

"Listen," Sanzo ground out, as he dropped back to slam more rounds into his pistol. "I need to get to that power source. Will you guys just clear a path for me?!"

"Easier said than done, oh great Sanzo-sama," Gojyo shot back, recalling his blade. Several decapitated guards fell to the ground. "As usual, it's four of us against just about a million youkai..."

"Well, if you cover my back for a little while..." Hakkai said thoughtfully.

"Sure!" Goku said. He shifted his grip on his staff. There was a flash of light, then it morphed into its flail incarnation. "Just leave it to me!" With a blur of motion, he was off, and from the trail of screams in his wake, it seemed that the nearest attackers were getting the worse end of the bargain.

"You would think that they would hire some better fighters here in the castle, but--"

"Will everyone please ... _DUCK!_" Hakkai yelled, and a flash of light exploded from his hands. 

"--ack!"

"--shit!"

"--eek!"

The seering beam of pure energy lanced straight through the ranks of the enemy, punching through flesh and bone to slam into the far end of the corridor. Any in its path died instantly. Any near it fell back, temporarily blinded. In a flash, Sanzo was on his feet, and racing off in aftermath of the bolt.

"Sanzo!" Goku followed immediately.

"GOKU!" Gojyo yelled, a warning.

"Huh?" Goku slowed, and the massive sword blade sliced into the floor an inch from his nose. "Holy..."

"Above you!" there was a silver flash as a cresent shaped blade arced towards the great youkai towering over him. It hit armor and rebounded with a clink. More potent was the gunshot that rang out, and the spray of blood as it hit flesh. Gyuumao roared and wrenched his blade out of the ground.

"Sanzo, go!" Goku told the priest, as he reverted his weapon back to its original staff form. "I'll handle this big bully!"

He leapt over the next sweep of the massive sword, as agile as the monkey they called him. Using the momentum of his jump, he landed a heavy blow against Gyuumao's leg.

To adverse effect. The bull demon lashed out with his foot, apparently unhurt, and caught him in mid flight. There was a moment of dizzying vertigo, then he slammed hard into the floor. 

"Bakazaru!" Two more gunshots rang out, and Gyuumao, about to crush his fallen foe, spun from the youth to address the more immediate threat. Sanzo stood his ground, his gun levelled at the youkai. Then his eyes shifted to Hakkai and Gojyo. 

"Your weapon is useless unless you hit him on the hand," Hakkai said softly to his friend. "Can it reach that far?"

"If he stays still," Gojyo replied. 

"Then _do it_!" Hakkai told him, and dashed towards Gyuumao as he raised his hand to strike. He heard Gojyo's weapon arcing out, and as the blade plunged into flesh, his own blast hit Gyuumao on the back of his knees. The great youkai stumbled. _Sanzo!_ Hakkai called silently, and there was a gunshot.

__

He's--

--oh no.

The shot hadn't been from Sanzo's gun. The priest staggered forward a step. Then he leapt back as a series of gunshots rang out. Bullets slammed into the floor around him.

"Above!" Goku noted, having regained his feet. 

__

Nii, Hakkai realized. _We forgot all about him._

There was another shot, one that slashed through Sanzo's shoulder in a spray of blood. There was a strangled curse from the priest, then he spun, firing two shots into the darkness. By then, Hakkai was by his side, a question already forming on his lips.

"Six shots," Sanzo said calmly. "He's out of bullets. This is your chance to take down the great oaf before Nii has a chance to reload. Get under cover. Stay on the move."

"I understand," Hakkai said. "Trust us to cover your back."

Sanzo glanced at him, and there was a slight twist to his lips that might have been a wry smile. "It won't be the first time I've done that."

__

He was hit once in the chest and once in the shoulder, Hakkai noted with concern. _The latter is not a problem. The former--_

"GO!" Sanzo yelled, shoving him aside. There was a moment where the world was filled with the whine of air over a moving sword blade, then the very edge of that blade caught Hakkai and sent him crashing to the floor. The blade reversed direction and arced down again.

"If you get yourself cut open again, I'm not going to stuff your guts back in," Gojyo said from above him. There was a ear-piercing screech as Gyuumao's sword smashed into the shaft of his shakujou. Gojyo fell back a step, his arms trembling from the strain, and the shaft gave, ever so slightly. 

"I don't intend to," Hakkai retorted, then fired.

The blast slammed into Gyuumao's sword hand, and with a howl of pain, the youkai dropped his weapon. Goku sprang into the action, slamming the end of his Nyoibou into Gyuumao's wrist with a splintering crack.

"Gotcha!"

__

But he's not slowing, Hakkai realized. _With every stroke, with every move, he's becoming swifter, faster, harder to hit..._

He hadn't anticipated Gyuumao's great fist swinging in from the other direction. It caught him square in the ribs, flinging him through the air. 

With a crash, he slammed into the far wall, and the world went alarmingly black.

__

Light. And Gojyo was running towards him.  
_Darkness. _And he could hear his companion's shout of concern.  
_Light. _And he could see Gyuumao bearing down on Gojyo.  
_Darkness. _And his own shout of warning was drowned in the void.  
_Light. _And he surged to his feet, gathering the most powerful ball of _ki_ he possibly could.   
_Darkness_. And ball of fire from Gyuumao's hand.  
_Light_. And his own blast, surging forward.  
_Darkness_. And both collided with the explosion of a million stars.

When the sparks cleared and vision returned, he saw the trails of blood. He saw Gojyo, slumped against the floor, the victim in the backlash. He saw Hakuryuu drifting to the floor, his wings charred and in tatters. He saw Gyuumao, doubled over but still standing, the red light of madness in his eyes.

__

Go, he wished Goku. _Go and help Sanzo. There is nothing left for you here._

Then he reached up and ripped off his limiters.

__

There is nothing left for anyone here...

***

The entire world exploded in front of Goku. Lightning and fire clashed and seered the walls, leaping up to singe the ceiling. Pipes exploded, leaking white clouds. Gyuumao hefted his sword, and its blade burst into flame. It descended, sheering through walkways and sending metal raining to the ground in showers of sparks.

Momentarily overlooked, Goku glanced up at the demon and back the way Sanzo had gone. Resolve wavered. 

__

To help Sanzo or to help Hakkai...

You'd be of more assistance here, an inner voice told him. _Sanzo can destroy the sutras on his own, but Hakkai might need your help._ He glanced at Hakkai, and a shiver ran down his spine. 

Fire exploded from the trail of Gyuumao's sword. Hakkai evaded the main thrust, then threw up a barrier to fend off the aftermath. Gyuumao struck again, noticeably faster this time, and again Hakkai evaded.

Goku caught Hakkai's eye for a moment, and read the thought within -- _Use this opening while I distract him_. He didn't even spare the time for a nod of assent, then he was rushing into the fray, aiming to disarm Gyuumao again. He missed; saw the end of Nyoibou strike air, then something slammed into him from behind and he went crashing to the floor.

For a moment he lay, stunned. A second passed, then two, then something -- someone -- bowled into him, bearing him out of danger. Barely in time; a wave of fire swept the ground where they'd been.

"Thanks," he gasped at Hakkai, who ignored him, dropping him to the ground to raise a shield against the next attack. 

Which came, in the form of Gyuumao's sword itself, trailing an inferno in its wake. The shield held, barely. Sweat broke out on Hakkai's forehead, and one of his feet began to give way.

That was when Goku saw the _other_ threat. 

The summoned demon came streaking out of the air, angled to attack from the side, behind the shield -- 

-- Goku rushed to fill the gap, and for a moment the world was filled with pulsing energy as he met the Summons head on. 

He knew he screamed; the world exploded in pain as metaphysical teeth and claws racked his body. Squinting through the films of blood, he lashed out, blocked -- _something_. Fighting every step of the way, he attacked, countered, attacked, countered; it was like fighting a physical foe save that it changed form in an eyeblink. Blood flew, his or the demon's, he couldn't tell. 

Then light came out of nowhere. 

The blast missed him by a hair's breadth, sheering straight through the Summons, slicing with a surgeon's precision to where its heart was. There was an explosion of sorts, of distorted energy swirling into a blackhole... and the demon dissipated. 

Goku glanced back. Hakkai stood behind him, blood soaked, out of breath, the glow of a _ki_ bolt fading from his fingertips. 

"Thanks," he gasped, and Hakkai shot him a look. "You have to do more than that." Not a request, not an admonishment. Just a statement.

Goku stared at him.

***

__

Power. _There was so much power here..._

Sanzo leaned against the side of the chamber, breathing hard. He paused to reload, scanning the room for more traps. Some thirty bullets and a lot of blood had been expended simply getting in here; he wasn't about to believe that there weren't any more nasty surprises waiting for him.

__

If not for the long range capabilities of the Smith and Wesson... anyone using handheld weapons would never have made it in here alive.

His head was spinning. There were crashes from outside, surges in youryoku, Minus waves so strong that even he could feel them. 

__

No evident threats. Taking a deep breath, he dashed to the center of the room.

The sutras were enclosed in a sphere, floating in midair above his head, interweaving in complex patterns. Occasionally, one saw a flash of brilliant symmetry in their movements, where they caught the light just _there_ and framed a snowflake, a star... but now they were moving with increased urgency, in distorted rhythm. 

__

Degenerating into chaos. _Now, how does one stop this..._

There was another crash, and another surge of youryoku. Sanzo winced, leaning forward to support his weight on the bank of computer consoles surrounding the sutras.

__

In the absence of a more elegant solution...

He raised the revolver. 

__

...Wait. Something niggled at the edge of memory. Some chant or other; some half-forgotten mantra that his teacher had taught him, or someone had taught him, or something...

If only he could think beyond the clamouring pain and his failing senses. 

"I've studied them for years, you know. Longer than you've been a Sanzo, for certain," a voice said from the doorway. "Do you think to unravel all their secrets just by staring at them for ten minutes?"

He ignored the voice. Sometimes, it was said, the words were not important; they served as a ritual, as a means to gather one's concentration, but the important thing was an awareness of the sutras themselves...

"Interesting. I never expected you to get this far. I'm beginning to see what Koumyou saw in you. Certainly, pigheaded stubborness has its advantages..."

He recited the Maten sutra, the first thing that came to mind. 

__

A web of interlocking lines, moving as such_ to create resonance..._

"But you're not like him. Your strength is derived from a completely different source."

__

Ignore him... somewhere, somewhere in here is the key to unlock all that power. No wonder you took years to find out how to use them. Some things cannot be figured out without looking at the complete picture. 

As such_ and _such...

*

Nii nodded encouragingly. The kid was quick on the uptake. And if he hadn't been so stupid as to leave an enemy at his back, he might even have succeeded. Fascinating, how instinct sliced to the heart of the matter when intellect became mired in the complications. 

He was aware of a blood curdling scream outside. 

"You'd better hurry," he said. "You're losing too much blood as it is. Otherwise you'd have taken the time to try and finish me off, wouldn't you?"

A massive explosion from without -- he could guess who was winning the fight. "Well..." he chuckled. "It almost worked. I'll have to wait until the next time, then."

He could sense what Genjo Sanzo was doing -- it was like rewiring a powerbox to blow. Hasty, hesistant, certainly not the more elegant solution, but it worked in its clumsiness. 

"Almost there. A little faster the next time and you'll have it." And he drew the pistol from his pocket.

*

Sanzo felt the stab of pain and the sudden distortion of the worldview. _Gods, I lost it _... He clawed at concentration, scrambling for lines and cursing Nii to the deepest pits of Hell...

Almost had it, then there was another shot.

__

Shit. His knees gave. His hand closed around the grip of his own gun and he snapped off a shot. Nothing. The doctor had gone. No -- was standing there now... 

...he was choking on his own blood, acutely aware of the gun slipping from his grasp, his forehead hitting the consoles, and always, _always_, the infuriating sutras above. Just inches away from completing his task. 

"Farewell, Genjo Sanzo."

A voice, some voice, someone he couldn't place.

He reached for the light, and his fingers closed on darkness.

*

He wasn't quite sure how they achieved it; he wasn't even quite sure how they communicated, now that Goku had fling off his limiter...

Yet, perhaps, between youkai, there was still some basic understanding on some level...

Goku had torn the sword from Gyuumao's grasp, and a blast from Hakkai had melted it beyond recall. The youkai king had retaliated with waves of fire, sending both attackers reeling.

But now Goku had lost it, and nothing, _nothing_ stopped him in his true form. Gyuumao fell back under his onslaught. 

Even so...

There was a flash of movement and Goku went sailing backwards. He spun in midair, landing gently on a pile of rubble. And Hakkai saw his opening. 

It was not a bolt -- it was a lance. A spear of solid light that snapped across the distance, skewering Gyuumao against the far wall. The Bull Demon screamed in pain, and Hakkai braced himself against the counterstrike. 

"GOKU!"

__

As ever all hope hangs on the boy...

There was a blur of movement overhead even as fire swept over him, even as pain burned its way through every nerve and then passed even beyond agony into nothingness. He saw -- he sensed, something that might have been a roar, except that the sound was so loud that it defied recognition. He thought he felt the world change before he fell.

*

The end of the staff plunged through that glowing red eye. With all of Goku's force and momentum behind it, it tore through bone and brain to rip out the other side. Gyuumao's scream tore through the air.

With a thought, Goku banished the staff, leaving the youkai king to sink to the floor, still twitching in the throes of death. He turned to contemplate his foe, contemplating the blood spewing across the room, its rich smell a miasma. He flexed a clawed hand.

Then something exploded.

*

Nii nodded, once, and raised his hand. The light faded. The sphere disintegrated, nothing more solid than air, and the sutras clattered to the ground. Humming, he retrieved them.

Outside, the castle began to collapse.

*

Goku opened his eyes.

He raised a shaking hand to his forehead. No... the limiter was gone. But something had changed; as if Gyuumao's death had released a massive wave to negate the Minus Wave. A Plus Wave, perhaps, restoring youkai across the land to sanity...

He tried to rise, got as far as his knees, then collapsed again. Gyuumao was dead. So was Hakkai... Gojyo... Hakuryuu. _Sanzo?_

Painfully, he pushed himself upright again, then fell, drowning under a wave of nausea. He was vaguely aware of everything collapsing, the ceiling coming down, the walls caving in...

...Footsteps sounded. Distant at first, then closer, until they paused somewhere near him. _Sanzo?_ He glanced up.

The scientist stood there, a stuff rabbit under one arm, a cigarette hanging out the corner of his mouth. He adjusted his glasses and smiled. "Son Goku, eh?"

"Where's..."

Nii just continued smiling. 

"You ... killed him?"

"He would have died anyway, from the bloodloss. Or when the place collapsed. Think about it this way -- at least you'll be off to Heaven together."

__

Heaven... 

"At least you got Gyuumao," the voice was speculative. "Well, I'd best be on my way. Farewell, Goku."

Footsteps again, receding.

Goku closed his eyes.

***  
TBC  
***

Whee.   
There you go, several hours (across several days...) of writing and 4,000 words of flashback...  
And no more! Whee!  
And no more battle scenes! *dances around*. Now I need sometime to decide the next direction of 'And Time Again'. 

And I've managed to kill everyone off in an average of 500 words per head, if you count Gyuumao and Hakuryuu... *beams*.

Apologies for any endings you might have felt were particularly ignominous. But in the heat of battle, not everyone can have a glorious send off. And this is sf, signing off with more than a little relief...

sf, May 11 2003, 5:50pm.


	14. Ch 14 : Array

**

AND TIME AGAIN  
Chapter 14 : Array

**

"That was... one helluva movie," Gojyo said, massaging his temples. He paused, looking around. "Hey... none of them awake yet?"

"Sadly..." Kanzeon said to him, "You were the first to go."

"Whaddya mean I was the first to go?!"

"Fate works as Fate will," the Goddess shrugged. 

Gojyo shuddered. "It's a huge relief to be back in reality, at least. Dying was too damn real..."

"Reality?" Kanzeon paused, and studied him. "What is reality?"

Gojyo stared. "What is reality?"

"How do you tell that what you are experiencing now is not just another illusion?" she glanced around. "How can you tell whether you are dreaming or awake?"

"I don't go for this philosophical bullshit..."

"Then, for once in your life, listen to this philosophical bullshit." Kanzeon sat up straighter. "With your failure to destroy the sutras, Nii Jieni went on attempt a second resurrection of Gyuumao."

"Couldn't have been very successful," Gojyo said hesistantly. "I don't see any youkai around."

"Indeed. It failed. It did more than fail -- it backfired. Gyuumao was resurrected, and Minus Waves streaked across the land, driving youkai far beyond the brink of sanity. That included the Demon King himself -- he was completely insane." She paused, lowering her voice. 

"Nii died first, when Gyuumao turned on him. Then, aiming to complete what he had started five hundred years ago, Gyuumao rallied the youkai to his call, and turned on humankind. It was a massacre. Millions were slaughtered, and those who were not, were enslaved. The entire world fell under Gyuumao's dominion, and Heaven withdrew. The earth fell into an era of chaos and darkness."

"Holy shit..."

"However, a curious problem arose. It appeared that the effects of the Minus Wave were not permanent, and some youkai began to recover their sanity. Horrified at the carnage, horrified at the destruction, they banded together and raised arms against Gyuumao. 

"In the beginning, such pockets of resistance were mercilessly crushed. Eventually, however, they increased with such frequency that it was impossible to track all of them down.

"Gyuumao gathered his closest advisors, and, intent on keeping their stranglehold on the world, they researched and formulated a strategy. 

"It was known that the interaction of youryoku and chemistry created the Minus Waves, which were Gyuumao's source of control over the youkai population. Their objective, therefore, was to generate a constant supply of Minus Waves. Another resurrection would supply such Waves in the short term; however, it would not last forever and Gyuumao was not intent on raising another of the dead. 

"Quite by accident, one youkai scientist stumbled upon the solution. Till today, he does not have a complete understanding of the mechanics behind it, but he is able to replicate the results. Rather, his descendents have been able to replicate his work."

"His descendents?"

"It has been one thousand three hundred years, Gojyo."

"And what would that ... 'solution' ... be?"

"He created a world. A world of magic -- youryoku -- and illusion. And he wired humankind into this world. With this, he upset the balance between youryoku and chemistry... enough to create the necessary Minus Waves."

"He ...what?"

"Everything around you... this room, this table, everything nonhuman, in fact, is ... just a dream. Just an illusion. Just a scattering of sparks and energy and youryoku." Kanzeon stared at Gojyo. "This world you are living in... is merely a youkai creation. It is called... the Array."

.

.

.

Really?  
Naw, I'm just BSing all of you. The real chapter 14 will up sooner or later. Bank on later ^_~.  
I hope you had a good laugh. I did.  
_sf -- May 22nd, 12:30am._


	15. Ch 15 : Of realizations and revelations

UltraM2000 -- Hai hai... baka ni suru, hidoii ne? Demo, tanoshikatta... 'Pote' wa nan desuka? ^_~

Okie, you folks. After a longgggg delay... 

****

And Time Again  
Chapter 15 : Of realizations and revelations

  


"So..." Sanzo leaned back, feeling the passing urge for a cigarette. "We all kicked the bucket, is that it?"

"And if we killed whats-his-face in the end, why are you still showing us this?" Gojyo asked. "You guys _did _kill what-his--"

"Gyuumao. I'm quite sure he was dead," Hakkai supplied.

"Yeah, so what's all this about, then?" Gojyo looked around, recalling everyone to the damage inflicted upon the premises. Sanzo still held his 9mm. "Gyuumao's lackeys decide to take revenge... what, more than a millenia later? Man, can these guys carry grudge or what?"

Kanzeon smiled. "I thought you guys would have figured it out by now."

"So _excuse us_ for being stupid," Sanzo bit back.

"I get it. It's us against Gyuumao's lackeys. And there was... Nii, right? We didn't polish him off. He must have frozen himself in deep storage and waited all this time to get back at us for foiling his experiment. Yeah, that's it!" Gojyo looked sage.

Hakkai and Sanzo exchanged the glances of science majors long used to experiments going awry. 

"What do you think, Hakkai?" Kanzeon asked.

"I confess myself at a bit of a loss. Evidently, though, some people think that we're important enough to assassinate. Why we'd pose a threat -- without the sutras and all -- I don't know. Perhaps someone is trying to resurrect Gyuumao again?"

"Ah," Sanzo said quietly. "So you want us to save the world again."

"As you figured out in your last incarnation, the sutras needed to be destroyed," Kanzeon said.

"But this is different. Gyuumao's physical body was blasted to smithreens," Gojyo pointed out. "So even if they can recall his soul from Hell, they can't very well have him wandering around as a lost soul, right?"

"The abilities of the sutras extend far beyond that," Hakkai reminded him. "As with Homura..." he pushed up his spectacles. "That's it, isn't it? Someone wants to destroy the world."

"Well done," Kanzeon lauded them. "Well, not really. No one really knows what the bad guys are up to, but the sutras are new nuclear weapons of this age. They're powerful weapons, spiritually and politically and all that. Modern day robbery on a big scale : Give me all your bases or I'll blow you sky high."

"And these weapons need to be destroyed, balance of power, equal rights to all, if I can't have it, then you can't, yaddayaddayadda," Sanzo said.

"Exactly, errand boy. And since this is your era, it's your call. I'd--"

"--But why?" Sanzo asked, his tone still quiet. 

"Why what? You didn't finish the job the last time, so you have your second chance. Don't screw up too badly this round."

"No. You haven't answered the question." Sanzo folded his arms around the table and met her gaze squarely. "Let me refresh your memory. Round one : we tramped halfway across the world, taking years to reach Tenjiku, and we did what you told us to do : Stop the resurrection and find out who was behind it. The original orders never said anything about the destruction of the sutras."

"We only realized that later," Kanzeon replied.

"And the gods are omniscient?" Gojyo asked Hakkai quietly.

"Yeah, between us, we know everything," Kanzeon told him. "Problem's communication."

"So that's it. Mission accomplished, and all that," Sanzo continued. "For round two -- go get someone else! To quote a popular computer game : _Where's our fat reward and ticket home?_"

"Because, Genjo Sanzo, it's not up to you already. Someone's already targeted you -- you can see that. And I can restore this place to what it was before... and you can pretend to go back to living your old lives. But one day, when the time is right -- they'll try again. And I'll tell you this -- they underestimated you this time. The next time, be assured that they won't fail. To quote that same game -- It looks like you're stuck on the shores of Hell. The only way out... is through."

"Why are they targeting us?" Hakkai asked. "We don't have a sutra any more... neither were we involved in this to any extent. Not until recently, at least."

"It's another long story," Kanzeon yawned. "And I'm bored. I want coffee."

"Go make your own," Sanzo muttered.

"I'd do it, but the kitchen's a mess," Hakkai said discretely.

"Oh. That? Trivial matter." Kanzeon waved a hand. "Now Sanzo, go make some coffee."

"What? Me?" Sanzo glared at her. 

"I just restored your house. The least you could do is to give me a drink for my efforts."

"Bitch," Sanzo muttered, but he stormed off towards the kitchen anyway.

"See, it was all a matter of time before you got involved, anyway," Kanzeon told them. "You weirdos weren't even a typical household to begin with--"

"--we're not a household!" Gojyo protested.

"--and with Hakuryuu, you're even less of one. Sorry, boys, but you've already stepped through the looking glass and smashed it, big time. You're in for a ride, whether you like it or not."

Sanzo returned. "It's brewing."

"It's done," Kanzeon told him. "One and a half sugarcubes, one fifth milk, full cream, please."

"You can just spin your own coffee out of thin air!" Sanzo fumed.

"But it's so much more fun if you do it."

"I don't have frigging sugar cubes!"

"Make some."

"What the hell?"

"The length of a side of a typical sugar cube is 1.3cm," Hakkai told him.

"And how am I supposed to measure 3.2955 cm cube of sugar?" Sanzo demanded. "I don't have any apparatus that measures to that number of decimal places. We can't even use Archimedes' principle, because the damn sugar is soluble!"

"Oh, fine, you have sugar cubes now," Kanzeon sighed. "Really, you two..."

"_You're _the one who asked for one and a half sugarcubes!" Sanzo exploded.

"I feel like a coffee too," Hakkai said hurriedly. "Come on, let's go get some." He shoved Sanzo towards the kitchen.

"Having a pet dragon doesn't make us ... well, all that strange, or anything. Or all powerful," Gojyo pointed out. "We're still the average dudes in the street."

"Not exactly. Anyway, you might be interested to know that the 'average dude in the street' isn't all average, anyway."

"What?" Gojyo asked. "Don't tell me it's that Array nonsense again! I'm not falling for it a second time!"

"No, I'm quite serious. More than half of the threat posed by the sutras is that ... none of you are quite pure human any more."

"What?"

"Gyuumao's death restored the youkai to sanity," Kanzeon told him. "However, their ranks were greatly whittled by humans in general and you guys in specific. They began to die out, and indeed, they did. Which is why you don't see any full blooded youkai these days. However, this took several centuries. In the interim, you might be pleased to know that the stigma against human and youkai intercourse began to wane. Half breed children became common, and as the youkai began to resemble humans more, cross breeding occurred even more often. The net result is, till today, it is the rare human who does not carry some youkai blood somewhere in his ancestory."

"That's pretty damn far flung!"

"Let's not forget all the crisises that occurred. Youkais are survivors. Humans generally aren't. The youkai population stayed pretty much stable so long as they didn't interbreed, but humans breed quickly and die quickly when there's a disaster."

"So you're saying that they had kids with youkai just to boast their numbers?"

"Humans have the survival instincts of rabbits. Breed as fast as possible to ensure that, even if you can't, your offspring will take over the world."

"Shit... that's..."

"There was also a large amount of destruction in the aftermath of Gyuumao's death. Not to mention all the villages and towns ransacked by youkai, or impoverished, or cut off bceause of inaccessibility."

"Even so..."

"Yeah, it's pretty far flung. But I'd say at least half of you have youkai blood. Very, very watered down, but youkai blood, all the same."

"And what's that to do with the sutras?" Gojyo asked.

"Youkai blood. Sutras. Minus Waves. Do the maths," Kanzeon said.

"Shit, I always sucked at maths..." Gojyo said. "But ... that's one _helluva_ disaster we're talking about."

"So the _entire_ world is at stake again," Hakkai said grimly, from the doorway. 

"And guess _who_ is up to save it," Sanzo said, appearing next to him. "Your coffee, hag."

"And no thanks to you," Kanzeon told him. "Yeah. But anyway, you guys have Destiny written all over your faces in Bold Flaming Red Letters."

"I didn't anything except 'Sex-Bomb' on my forehead, the last I checked," Gojyo retorted.

"Not really. But he does." Kanzeon pointed a finger at Goku. "Destiny, I mean. Not sex-bomb."

All eyes turned to the youngest member of their group. It was only then that they realized how quiet he'd been. He had propped his elbows on the table and his chin on his hands. Now he looked up, straight at Kanzeon. 

"I didn't die, right?"

***

"And so the old hag says, go save the world, and being the good little servants that we are, we jump to save the world. Hakkai, I can't _believe_ we're doing this," Gojyo told him. 

"Could you pass me those books, please? Thank you." Hakkai deposited his own pile into a box. "On the bright side, we get better accomodations."

"I can't believe that Sanzo let us move in, anyway."

"We don't really have much of a choice. We're all in danger, and it's best if we--"

"Party lines, Hakkai. Fact is, you put him up to it because he has more room for your books, right?"

"Pass me that pile... oh yes. Much more room," Hakkai wore a tiny smile as he sealed up another large cardboard box. It was his ninth. He unfolded his tenth, and stared at the remaining books scattered around the apartment. The older ones, for sale, had already been disposed of, but the remainder could have stocked a small library.

"Hey.... you know, Kanzeon said that we all had youkai blood." Gojyo looked thoughtful. "Does that... you know, mean that we have youkai powers or something?"

"I guess it doesn't count for much, if everyone has them too," Hakkai replied, scanning his checklist and ticking furiously. "I don't think we can cast spells and draw _ki_ the way we did, but speed and strength... well, there's always a new record at the Olympics, isn't there?"

"Yeah. Except the kid."

"Except Goku. He's the closest thing we have to a full blooded youkai. No, he's more powerful than a youkai..."

__

"He was born from the earth," Kanzeon reminded them. "And, as such, he was born for a single purpose -- the return of the sutras to the earth. And he will not die until his purpose is accomplished. That is the mark of an immortal."

"And once we destroy the sutras?" Sanzo asked.

Kanzeon stared levelly at them.

"That's why he remembers," Gojyo said. "In vague snippets. That's why he was trying to get us together."

"I wonder what happened in the interim."

"He probably spent a couple of centuries comatose and recovering... then moving from foster home to foster home with nice fifty year hibernations in between, that sort of thing."

"He never did know his parents..."

"But he must have been in school for an awful long time." Gojyo shuddered. "Horrifying thought. I can't see why anyone would spend their time in this place if they had a choice."

Hakkai threw another stack of books into the box. "He probably spent most of the last century sleeping somewhere. I doubt he's been to college before."

"Man, he sure wasted a lot of time," Gojyo said. He glanced down, then realized his arms were beginning to tremble violently. "Ah... Hakkai, how long have I been holding this stack of books?"

"I'd say twenty minutes," Hakkai replied calmly. "If you must drop them, try to avoid your toes."

"_OW! F*CK!_ Too damn late!"

***

__

"And once we destroy the sutras?"

__

"He will return to the earth," Kanzeon replied.

Goku stared out of the window. Gojyo's friend's pickup pulled up into the driveway, carrying several dozen large cardboard boxes. Gojyo and Hakkai leapt out of the cab, and began the long process of unloading. 

__

He will return to the earth.

A box hit the ground and burst open, spewing books, papers and random objects across the driveway. Goku glimpsed a lime green plush dinosaur.

__

"What about reincarnation?" Hakkai had asked.

Sanzo arrived at the scene, shaking his head in disgust.

__

"Only humans and youkai are bound to the Cycle of Karma. Goku is at once both and neither of these. He is immortal, and he only has one life to live."

"But if he's immortal, he should live forever..."

"The earth will live forever. The form, however, may vary."

Gojyo and Sanzo had started quarreling. Hakkai stood at the side, smiling quietly at something.

__

How greedy am I? Goku wondered. _I've already lived two millenia..._

Hakuryuu nipped in between the two combatants and puffed a fireball at them. The quarrel stopped rather quickly.

__

But I haven't really lived_, have I? I hardly remember a thing beyond the past few years. And when it comes down to that..._

Gojyo swatted at Hakuryuu, Hakkai moved to intervene, and knocked into Sanzo, who grabbed Gojyo for support. All of them hit the ground, and Hakkai burst out laughing. Gojyo and Sanzo stared hard at him. Then a slow grin began to grow on Gojyo's face. As Sanzo stood and dusted himself off, Gojyo flopped over onto his back and began howling in laughter.

__

When it comes down to that...

The corner of Sanzo's mouth twitched, before he turned and stormed off. 

..._I don't want this to end_.

__

Is this the real world  
Or a fool's paradise?

A/N : More explanations in the next chapter if I think they're necessary. Also more of the Sanzo-ikkou's reactions, because I really didn't want to bog down this chapter with too much information. 

Ooo. _Angst_. Goku angst. Mwahahahhaa. Now write and tell me how much you hate me! *sparkle in eyes*. 

(The computer game, by the way, is Doom I -- The Shores of Hell.)

A/N : Just to get it clear -- this fic based in the future of the Saiyuki universe, which is assumed to be like our present day world. However, the real world never had Gyuumaos or Sanzos in its history, nor Temples of the Setting Sun and Castles in Tenjiku. So don't mind me if I start making up geography.


	16. Ch 16 : Explorations

Minor reworks to the previous chapter, and a very minor correction to one of the Gyuumao fight chapters. (Sanzo was using a gun he didn't have.... again!)

****

And Time Again  
Part III : Light of the World  
Chapter 16

It was easy to believe that life was back to normal. They went back for classes, and studied for the semestral examinations. Kanzeon had more or less restored everything to normal, not a whisper of the attacks had gotten out to the police. It was as if nothing had happened.

Goku couldn't stand it.

Kanzeon had said it, hadn't she? That their lives were never going to be the same again... that they couldn't go back to what it had been before. But it seemed that they had. It seemed that the rest were simply ignoring the incident, making light of it... or worse, they'd erased all traces of it from their memories. 

"Aren't we going to _do_ anything about it?" he asked Sanzo.

"About what?" Sanzo replied.

"You know... the whole Find the Sutras and Destroy Them mission?"

"Oh, it can go hang."

"But..."

But Sanzo had turned back to his work, and wasn't paying attention any more.

"We can do something about it during the summer break," Hakkai told him.

"Yeah. What's the use of being appointed the Saviors of Mankind and Youkaikind if it doesn't exempt us from examinations?" Gojyo grumbled. 

"Yeah, but shouldn't we at least start finding out more about the sutras... or something..."

"Later," Sanzo said curtly, and that was the last of it.

With Hakkai and Gojyo taking up residence, the house had opened up. Sunlight streamed into closed rooms again, empty shelves in the library were filled, and there was always food in the kitchen.

Goku took to exploring the place again in his free time. There was often something new -- a turn or a corner or a locked door newly opened. There were storerooms filled with the memorabilia of generations. There were old paintings, covered and sealed away from the ravages of humidity. Ancient weapons, pottery, furniture... no few of Sanzo's ancestors had been collectors.

And there was the picture. It had been restored at least once, and even then, was faded. But when he'd dragged the others up to look at it, the resemblance had been unmistakable.

It was them. It was what they had been, all the way back in Chou'An, and Gojyo had laughed and poked fun at their outfits and Goku's limiter, while Sanzo and Hakkai had examined it with unreadable expressions. Even Hakuryuu was there, wrapped around Hakkai's neck.

"What happened to your limiter, anyway?" Gojyo asked.

"After Gyuumao died, there wasn't any more use for it." Goku looked down at his hands. "I don't know why I'm not in my youkai form, though, even without the limiter."

"You're repressed," Gojyo said, and evidently thought it a huge joke.

"Idiots," Sanzo muttered. "Get out of the room. You're letting light in and dust out."

They filed out. Hakkai looked thoughtful, Sanzo was frowning, and Gojyo was choking on dust. Goku felt an indescribable mishmash of emotions -- at once, a wistful longing for times past, and at the same time... they _were_ back. They _were_ together. It felt... right. 

__

We're together in the end... as we were in the beginning. But for times when our mission was so much simpler...

"The records aren't exactly clear," Sanzo was saying, in response to a question from Hakkai. "I can only guess that, with Gyuumao's death, the post of Sanzo took a more honorary meaning. After all, the whole 'protectors of the sutras' description had gone out of the window."

"Sure you didn't have any spawn?" Gojyo leered. 

Sanzo shot him a glare.

"So the significance of the Sanzo title must have drifted from its original meaning," Hakkai said.

"Until they set up their own business empire and took over the world, corporate style," Gojyo said.

Sanzo sighed and rolled his eyes. "I don't know. I don't particularly care."

*

Another evening found Goku in the basement. He'd never ventured here before... he'd found that enclosed, windowless rooms gave him a mild case of claustrophobia. Ever since Kanzeon's visit, he had come to the conclusion that it was a side effect of his imprisonment on the Mountain.

"Ridiculous," he muttered to himself. "I'm not going to let a bad memory stop me."

So he'd confronted his fears, stared down the dimly lit stairwell, and gathered the courage to follow it.

Goku paused at the bottom. He thought he'd heard something... a knock or an impact. Was someone already down here?

He took another step forward, taking care to keep his movements as soundless as possible. 

Then he heard it again. A muffled thud, like a loud knock behind closed doors. It was hard to say which direction it came from, but it seemed to be in front of him. 

He inched forward, when he heard it again. And twice more, in rapid succession.

He paused. It sounded oddly familiar... it sounded like...

__

A gunshot.

Flinging caution to the wind, he raced forward, and found himself confronted with several doors. He fumbled at the door handles, remembering only masked assailants and the thunderclap of bullets racing through the air.

The second door yielded. He flung it open --

-- and a bullet raced past his left ear to embed itself into the wall.

There was a moment of breathless silence, then a voice drifted irritably over. "Just what the hell did you think you were doing?"

Goku unfroze slowly at the sound, and glanced around. He was in a shooting range. Sanzo stood at one of the lanes, his 9mm still smoking. As Goku blinked sheepishly, the older man discarded the magazine and slammed in a new one. 

"I thought there was an intruder. I mean... the last time I heard gunshots..." Goku stuttered.

"And, upon deducing that danger was present, you ran _straight towards it_." Sanzo's tone was a mixture of anger and sarcasm. 

"Well--"

There was a clang as Sanzo slammed the gun down and stalked over. "Let's get something straight, Goku."

"What?"

"Whatever it was you were back then... you are practically human now. I don't know what the death of Gyuumao did to seal your powers, but get this -- _they are sealed_. You don't have them. As far as I can see, you're as normal as the next person."

"But I didn't die! I wasn't reborn as human or whatever. That means that--"

"--_sealed_, Goku. Get that into your head. You don't even need your limiter any more. I doubt if you even remember how to fight properly. Which means that, at this point in time, _you are a liability._ Not a hero. Which means that, if there's danger, you _get your ass out of the way_, get it?"

"I'm not going to stay out of the way and watch you try and take on the world yourself!" Goku snapped, suddenly defiant. "_You're_ not invincible either, the last time I checked!"

They exchanged glares. Abruptly, Sanzo spun and walked off. Goku stared at his back, wondering what had just transpired. _I don't know. He's right. But I hate being underestimated. It was always my job to protect Sanzo. It was the only thing I wanted to do, back then. I never imagined that I wouldn't be able to do it now..._

"Sanzo..." he started forward. "I--"

Sanzo turned back, and shoved the gun into his hands. 

"What?" Goku glanced down. Black metal gleamed back at him. Loaded. Live ammunition. "I don't know how to use this!"

"Safety. On. Off. Trigger. This is how you eject the eject the magazine. To reload, just ram a new one in. Practically idiot proof." Sanzo indicated. 

"Alright, I get it." He turned towards the target at the far end, squinted, and hit the trigger.

He missed by a mile.

"I... guess I need practice," he grinned.

Sanzo was watching him, his expression unreadable. "I don't expect you to use it," he said quietly. "I expect you to run like hell when trouble breaks out. But if you're ever in a tight corner... you can't miss if the target's right in front of you."

Goku paused. "I can fight."

"Don't count on it." Sanzo brushed past him. "There are 30 rounds in the magazine. There are spare clips to your left. Remember to safety the weapon if you're not using it."

"Don't you need this?"

"I have another." He disappeared without ceremony through the open door. There was the sound of retreating footsteps.

Goku turned, aimed, and fired.

Once again, he missed the target entirely. 

__

Sanzo gave me a gun, his mind realized belatedly. _Sanzo gave me a weapon._ _Taught me how to use it._ His knees suddenly felt weak. Staggering back two steps, he leaned against the wall. _Sanzo gave me a _weapon. _I could _kill_ people with this._

__

"Your lives will never be the same again," Kanzeon had promised.

__

I'm in a shooting range. Sanzo isn't worried about danger -- Sanzo expects_ danger._ The full gravity of the situation was hitting home. _He's killed someone. Someone tried to kill us. This isn't a holiday tour. This is for real._

__

"I expect you to run like hell."

"You are a liability."

"...if you're ever in a tight corner..."

__

What happened? he thought weakly. _What happened after Gyuumao's death? I never needed any one to protect me before this. _And : _Is this what it feels like to be normal and helpless? To stand by while the ones you love take the blow for you?_

He shuddered; the world suddenly seemed colder, more sinister. _I never had cause to worry before this. _

He flexed his fingers, suddenly missing a familiar weight. _I must have lost Nyoibou_. 

Nyoibou. He wanted it back. Perhaps a staff would be useless in an era where long-ranged weaponry was the norm, but suddenly, he was sure that, once he had Nyoibou back, everything would return to him. _After all, we never _really_ forget a skill that we learn, right? We just get a little rusty. And I never really died._

Hope and determination surged up at the thought.

"I'll get it back," he announced to the empty room. "I'll get all it back -- Nyoibou, the fighting skills, my memories... everything. I'll never be a liability again."

The words bounced around, and echoed back at him. "I _mean it_!" he yelled back at the echoes. "I don't care if a staff's no use against a gunman. I'll make it work! I'll think of something!"

__

I'll become stronger!

***  
TBC  
***

A/N :   
Short chapter, but ... bleh. As I've said on my LJ, my Muse died. 

--  
To my reviewers, in general --

*Will* I kill Goku? *evil glint in eye*. Or will I pretend that there's a hope of saving him? And then kill him off at the end anyway? Will he die heroically or tragically? (Will he die in Sanzo's arms?) ...heh. *snickers*.

Queen of Vegetasai --   
My updates are slow and erratic. I won't pretend otherwise. I'd apologize, but well, I don't think there's anything to apologize for. *egoegoego* XP.

Why don't you just go ahead and write the idea? Considering that that element is just a (relatively) small part of my fic, compared to the main premise, I'm sure that you'll be able to write it in a totally different fashion. Every writer has their own interpretation of events, after all. ^_^

Yup, and I'm 100% certain about this -- there will be no yaoi. If you want Hakkai + Sanzo, it's in 'And Time Again Sketches'. [Insert long and pointless ramble about how yaoi detracts from the main plot and the other characters, hence yaoi is best saved for fics that are expressly concerned with yaoism. Considering that I don't write smut and I'm more interested in the undercurrents of the relationship than the snogging, I need an entire fic to bring out any yaoi. ^_^;;]

incandescens -- Homura will not be here. An explanation will be forthcoming in later chapters. As for the other two... it would be strange to include them without including Homura. I'll think about it.


	17. Ch 17 : Of Jeeps and Jets

**

And Time Again  
Chapter 17 : Of Jeeps and Jets

**

(I was incredibly tempted to name this chapter 'I Can Fly', Goku's song from the 3rd Vocal Album, because that's what's playing in the background as I write._'I can flying now. Motto takaku tooku made...'_ Gotta love Engrish XD )

"You have a... _what_?" 

There was a thud as the book slid off Gojyo's lap. He ignored it, being rather preoccupied with staring wide-eyed at Sanzo.

Sanzo favored him with a sardonic look. "A Gulfstream."

"A _private jet?_"

"It's the company's really. But I requisition it from time to time. And stop gaping. It's unbecoming." Sanzo turned back to the map.

"It's a pretty long drive from the airport," Hakkai pointed out. "Some rough terrain over here..." his finger traced the route. "The road's fallen into disrepair."

"Can't figure out why the Gods would let their own temples crumble," Sanzo muttered. "But that's what he's for," he pointed at Hakuryuu who was dozing on the sofa. 

"I'm not sure I remember how to drive a manual," Hakkai said. "It's been a while."

"You'll get it back. Now--"

There was a crash as the door was flung open. The gust of wind nearly sent the map flying, but Sanzo slammed his palm onto it. Droplets of rain gusted in. 

"Shut the door," Gojyo yawned, retrieving the book.

"_Idiot_," Sanzo swore, not bothering to look up.

Hakkai looked up as Goku slammed the door behind him. "You're dripping."

"Got caught in the rain," Goku grumbled. "I _hate_ coming back from school in the rain. And the exam was so difficult that I got hungry halfway through." He slopped across the floor, leaving puddles. 

Sanzo intercepted him before he reached the sofas, extending a hand and neatly snagging him by the collar. "Get a bath first."

"But I'm so _hungry_," Goku moaned. "I walked all the way home through the rain, and I lost heat, which meant that my body had to increase its metabolic rate, which meant that everything I ate in school has been--"

Sanzo propelled him towards the bathroom with a shove. The granite floor was slippery enough as it was, and with puddles all over it, Goku veritably skated across it. With a spectacular show of arm flailing accompanied by a massive yell of terror, he tripped over the mat and fell flat onto his face.

"And clean up the mess after you're done!" Sanzo yelled after him.

Goku leapt to his feet, glaring. "I--"

The towel hit him neatly in the face, effectively silencing the complaint. As Goku sulked off, Gojyo erupted into laughter. Hakkai's smile became just a little wider. Both of them glanced at Sanzo, who shrugged irritably and turned back to the map. 

*

"So... get packing."

"Huh?" Goku asked, stepping out of the bathroom. "Get packing? Where are we going?"

"Nowhere. Get a mop," Sanzo replied. He vanished up the stairs.

"What's up with _him_?" Goku grumbled. "What's happening?"

Hakkai cheerfully thrust the mop at him. "We're going on a trip."

"A trip?" Goku bounced forward eagerly, forgetting that the floor was still wet and very, very slippery. "OW!"

"A trip," Hakkai repeated, as he helped him to his feet. 

"Stop... laughing!" Goku growled at Gojyo through clenched teeth. 

"Can't help it, kiddo. You're so stupid that it's funny. That was a _trip_, yeah."

"I am _not_ stupid! No where as stupid as your puns! But where are we going and don't we have school and--" 

"--summer break," Hakkai pointed out. "Sanzo and I have finished our examinations, and Gojyo's last paper is tomorrow. We're taking a flight down to Xi'an on Saturday."

Goku stared at him. "Xi'an? We're going after the sutras?"

"Pack for warm weather," Hakkai told him.

"Wait... but... wait..." Goku stared at him. "When did you decide this? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Why bother yourself, when those two control freaks are perfectly happy making all the decisions for us?" Gojyo asked, flipping the page and yawning again. 

"But here I thought that you weren't going to do anything! You had me so worried!" 

Hakkai's expression didn't change, but the small smile that he wore seemed to become a little gentler. "We didn't want to distract you from your examinations. You may only be a first year, but they are pretty important."

"Not as important as this! We're talking about the fate of the world here!"

"It lasted this long, so it can last a little longer. After all this is over--" Hakkai blinked at the sudden change of expression on Goku's face. "What's wrong?"

Goku turned away, and began mopping with a vengeance. "Nothing."

A warm hand rested on his shoulder. "Kanzeon Bosatsu says many things. Not all of them need to be taken at face value."

"I said nothing's wrong," Goku said vehemently. "Forget it. I'll get packing."

"Goku--"

"I don't want to talk about it." Shrugging Hakkai's hand off, he stalked off.

*

"This beats the _hell_ out of flying commercial," Gojyo crowed, as the ground fell away under the Gulfstream's wheels. Sanzo shot him the look of the faintly amused, and returned to staring out of the window. 

With the lights out for take off, the interior of the plane was cast in the red glow of the setting sun. They watched the sky tilt and distant tree tops sweep past. Then they hit the cloud layer, a gray and purple affair shot through with gold. 

"Pretty..." Goku murmured, his eyes wide.

"It is, isn't it?" Hakkai said. 

"Hakkai..." Goku didn't look away from the window, but his voice was quiet. "Is it wrong to want to hold on to something?"

Hakkai glanced across the narrow aisle at Sanzo, who was, for all intents and purposes, studying the route. _Beholden to nothing and no one..._ he wondered how much of the old doctrine the other held to. How much of their own past lives they held to. 

__

Are we the same people living different lives? Different people living the same lives?

"I don't know," he replied frankly. "But if holding on stops you from moving forward, then I think it's time to let go."

"I don't like it," Goku declared, the gold of the sun shimmering in his eyes. "I don't like it at all."

Hakkai saw Sanzo pause -- just momentarily -- before forcing himself to relax. _Not so oblivious, after all._

"I don't like the idea that we're born for a purpose and a purpose only," Goku continued. "We're our own people. We live our own lives. We shouldn't... we shouldn't be born just to stop something, right?" They'd begun to level out now, way above the cloud layer. Looking down, it was as if they were looking on a different country altogether, a country of white and rolling clouds. One could almost imagine strange inhabitants moving across this desolate landscape.

"What about those people we kill?" Goku asked. "Are they just born to die under our hand? Don't we have lives beyond this purpose of getting the sutras? Isn't our... reincarnation worth more than just a mission?" he looked up now, a lost soul desperately looking for hope, for certainty, for some answer other than the one he feared was true. 

__

I really don't know, Hakkai thought, but that answer wasn't the one that the boy was looking for. _Boy? He's over a millenia old, by now..._

"How much do you remember?" he asked. 

"Yeah, how much?" Gojyo leaned in. "Didya like... wander around for several hundreds of years after the Gyuumao thing?"

"Heh." Goku leaned back, his demeanor changing into something more light hearted. "I don't know. It's all in fragments. I gather I slept a lot."

"Slept several hundred years away, huh."

"I wandered around a bit, too. I wasn't sure where I was going. Thinking back, I'm not sure if I were even aware of what was going on. I don't recall anything clearly until that last foster home that took me in..."

"Your uncle?"

"Well, foster uncle." Goku shrugged. "He was the one who persuaded me to go to school. He thought I was a high school drop out or something."

"That's it? You just bummed the centuries away?" Gojyo asked incredulously. "Are you a bum or are you a bum?"

Goku frowned in concentration. "Actually... I remember... meeting you."

"What?"

"About two hundred years back. I met you and Hakkai once or twice. But we were never together. It was as if... the time wasn't right. You'd be too old, or Hakkai would be too old..." he glanced across the aisle. "I never met Sanzo."

"Probably working his way up from the ant incarnation," Gojyo laughed. "After all that he did -- or didn't do -- as a monk in the past life--"

The guide book sailed over the seat to smack Gojyo smartly on the head. "See? See? He's at it again!"

"Yeah, but that's about all I can remember. It's all vague. In fact, it was like living in a dream until..." he glanced across the aisle. "I rounded a corner too fast one day and knocked into someone."

"Idiot," Sanzo muttered softly.

"But during that time..." Hakkai leaned back against his own seat. "You lived your own life, didn't you?" 

Goku looked at him. "Maybe. I sometimes just felt that I was passing the time."

"Kid," Gojyo said, "You either do the arrogant thing all the way, or not at all. No point in doing things half baked, you get what I mean?"

"Huh?" Goku replied.

"See... you're arrogant enough to think that, 'Wow whee, I'm so special as to be born specially for the purpose of saving the world! Cool!' But you're not arrogant enough to say 'Hey, no half nekkid God or Goddess is going to show me how to live _my_ life.'" He grinned. "You gotta follow both philosophies, ape, or neither."

"Don't call me that." Goku's voice was low and quiet.

"Huh?"

"_Don't call me an ape, you stupid brainless cockroach!_" 

There was a click of seatbelts as they lunged at each other. 

"Guys, we're not in a jeep--" Hakkai started to say, when the plane dropped abruptly. 

Two heads hit the ceiling and went crashing back into their seats as the pilot called out a turbulence warning. 

"ARGH," Goku yelled, clutching his head and fumbling for the belt.

"Argh yourself!" Gojyo snapped. "It's all your fault!"

"It's your fault! Calling me an ape!"

"Yeah, you _are_ an ape. And you should be thanking me for the advice!"

"Well, _thanks_, hairy cockroach!"

"You--"

The plane wobbled again.

"ARGH!"

*

"I hope he's gotten _that_ out of his system," Sanzo muttered, looking over at Goku. The boy was fast asleep, the combined effect of being knocked around and a heavy but excellent meal. Gojyo was snoring loudly as well.

"Well, he does have a valid concern. After all... Kanzeon all but said that he doesn't have a life beyond this."

"And what if we don't?" Sanzo asked.

"Ara?" Hakkai blinked at him.

"Don't give me that innocent look. You didn't answer his question, after all."

"So I didn't," Hakkai smiled. "I think Gojyo put it more clearly than I ever could. Goku's one for instinct, not for logic."

"Ah."

"And how would you have answered his question?"

Sanzo directed a level stare at him. "I didn't."

"But if he'd asked you...?"

Something darkened in his eyes. "Who knows? We were born for this purpose. That much is certain. Whether or not our destinies are our own to control after that... is anyone's guess." 

__

They'd dispersed. Or rather, Kanzeon had stood and headed for the door. The other three got up uncertainly, still staring at her handiwork. Bullet holes had disappeared without a trace. Smashed glass was restored, as good as new. There was nothing to suggest that a violent shootout had just occurred. 

He'd followed her. Followed her out of the door into the cool darkness of the garden. She shone with her own light, he noted, a muted glow. If there was any doubt that she was a Goddess, however irreverent a Goddess she might be, it was gone now. 

But it didn't make her any less of a bitch.

"You have something to say, Sanzo?"

He paused. Brief flashes of memories from even further back raced through the mind's eye, gone almost before they registered. Another place, of white walls and large ponds and water lilies. A younger Goku. A white-coated Hakkai. A black-haired Gojyo.

"We don't have a choice in this matter." 

Kanzeon smiled briefly at that. "No."

"But it doesn't stop us from choosing not to do it."

"Then you will die, and the rest of the world will follow after. Or it may not, if they fail. Who knows?"

He folded his arms across his chest. "I'm not doing this again."

"Oh?"

"Once was quite enough. Get someone else."

"Oh, but it's too late to choose someone else." She was still smiling, a slow, enigmatic smile. "Your entire life has been geared towards this point. You've already been targetted by the enemy. There is no turning back."

"Our... entire life?" Sanzo asked suspiciously. "The fact that none of us have parents to account for? The fact that, as far as you're concerned, we're free to up and go without having to settle loose ends?"

"Well, that's part of it."

"Are you saying that you set this up_?"_

She must have sensed his anger, for the smile seemed to grow more remote. "Fate works as Fate will."

"Don't give me that Fate BS," he hissed. "You screwed around with my life just to make sure that I could--" Could...

More memories. Different people. The same old wound. Two different life times, and yet not so different after all. "Bitch. BITCH."

__

"You have already been chosen. There is no turning back. If you run back to your old lives, pretending nothing is amiss, the enemy will send more assassins, and better ones. And if you die now, without having achieved anything, then all your sacrifices.. all their_ sacrifices, would have been in vain."_

Sanzo stared at her.

"Fate as Fate will, Genjo Sanzo."

"Bullshit."

"What?" Hakkai asked.

Sanzo smiled humorlessly. "Fate dictates where we go. But how we get there and what we do at the end ... is entirely up to us." 

__

And if that old hag tries to interfere again, I'll shoot her.

*

The undercarriage came down. The wing flaps opened. Goku and Gojyo awoke and scrabbled for seat belts. They descended rapidly, sweeping past the tree tops and down, down, down, towards the runway.

The wheels hit the ground just as the first rays of sunlight broke on a new day. 

Hakkai looked up and smiled. "We're back."

***

Gulfstream G100 --  
www.gulfstream.com/g100/

I *really* want that plane. ^_^

Although the 

Gulfstream G550 --  
www.gulfstream.com/g550/

Just makes me drool.

Bea-chan --  
I'll keep that in mind (Goku's turning into his youkai form) and save it for the most inconvenient moment possible... ^_^

Psycho-kyugurl --   
Erm... 'write as _well_' ^_~;;; Practice makes perfect, as they say. 

Fortunata --   
I've been writing for as long as you've been alive, that's why ^_^. Studying anime's great for ideas and fitting them together, although for improving writing skillz novels are better, especially if they have different styles. Of course, nothing ever beats practice proper. ^_^. 

Aki --  
Despite my constant rumbles about moving away from FF.net forever, I've never actually done it, because it does have one of the most convenient uploading and commenting facilities ^_~. So I guess I'm here to stay. 

Opersai --  
cf : 'Cycle of Karma'. Nope, not all my fics are going to be 38. Anyway, the plot's only just beginning here, so it'll be around for a long time to come.

Queen of Vegetasei --   
A tall Goku! *falls over laughing*. That's something I have to see.  
Goku : "Look, Sanzo! In youkai form I've even overcome the height rule, so I get to be seme!" 

Various others --   
Thank you, especially for the cookies. *is touched and would write more personal thank you notes, except that you'd probably prefer that the time be spent on updating the fic proper...*


	18. Ch 18 : Epilogue

****

And Time Again

Epilogue

...And then they died happily ever after.

Dear reviewers, 

I do appreciate your reviews, I'm touched that people care enough about this story to post reviews urging me to release the next chapter, and I sympathize with your impatience.

Unfortunately, I do have a life outside of writing Saiyuki fanfiction.

As the 'chapter' (temporary, I assure you), above shows, I can write very quickly, and release another chapter very quickly, but to do so would be to compromise its quality. I'm afraid that, not only am I /extremely/ busy *grits teeth*, I am rather stuck on this point of 'Time', and I'm trying to finish up my two shorter fics before I come back to this epic.

I ask for your understanding. 

I /do/ intend to continue, and I can only ask for your forbearance. I don't like being pushed -- it makes me frustrated, it makes you frustrated, and one day I may snap and take the whole story offline, which makes this all a very, very unhappy episode for everyone. Sadly, screaming at me is not going to help. 

At the end of the day, I am not getting paid to write fanfiction; it's a hobby, not a job. Writers are in no way obligated to their readers -- a lot of time and effort is put into these stories but we _don't get anything out of it_.

Thanks for your time. 

In haste,

sf


End file.
